No More Learning

The bear is omnivorous. It eats fruit, and is enabled by the
suppleness of its body to climb a tree; it also eats vegetables, and
it will break up a hive to get at the honey; it eats crabs and ants
also, and is in a general way carnivorous. It is so powerful that it
will attack not only the deer but the wild boar, if it can take it
unawares, and also the bull. After coming to close quarters with the
bull it falls on its back in front of the animal, and, when the bull
proceeds to butt, the bear seizes hold of the bull's horns with its
front paws, fastens its teeth into his shoulder, and drags him down to
the ground. For a short time together it can walk erect on its hind
legs. All the flesh it eats it first allows to become carrion.

The lion, like all other savage and jag-toothed animals, is
carnivorous. It devours its food greedily and fiercely, and often
swallows its prey entire without rending it at all; it will then go
fasting for two or three days together, being rendered capable of this
abstinence by its previous surfeit. It is a spare drinker. It
discharges the solid residuum in small quantities, about every other
day or at irregular intervals, and the substance of it is hard and dry
like the excrement of a dog. The wind discharged from off its
stomach is pungent, and its urine emits a strong odour, a phenomenon
which, in the case of dogs, accounts for their habit of sniffing at
trees; for, by the way, the lion, like the dog, lifts its leg to
void its urine. It infects the food it eats with a strong smell by
breathing on it, and when the animal is cut open an overpowering
vapour exhales from its inside.

Some wild quadrupeds feed in lakes and rivers; the seal is the
only one that gets its living on the sea. To the former class of
animals belong the so-called castor, the satyrium, the otter, and
the so-called latax, or beaver. The beaver is flatter than the otter
and has strong teeth; it often at night-time emerges from the water
and goes nibbling at the bark of the aspens that fringe the
riversides. The otter will bite a man, and it is said that whenever it
bites it will never let go until it hears a bone crack. The hair of
the beaver is rough, intermediate in appearance between the hair of
the seal and the hair of the deer.

6

Jag-toothed animals drink by lapping, as do also some animals
with teeth differently formed, as the mouse. Animals whose upper and
lower teeth meet evenly drink by suction, as the horse and the ox; the
bear neither laps nor sucks, but gulps down his drink. Birds, a
rule, drink by suction, but the long necked birds stop and elevate
their heads at intervals; the purple coot is the only one (of the
long-necked birds) that swallows water by gulps.

Horned animals, domesticated or wild, and all such as are not
jag-toothed, are all frugivorous and graminivorous, save under great
stress of hunger. The pig is an exception, it cares little for grass
or fruit, but of all animals it is the fondest of roots, owing to
the fact that its snout is peculiarly adapted for digging them out
of the ground; it is also of all animals the most easily pleased in
the matter of food. It takes on fat more rapidly in proportion to
its size than any other animal; in fact, a pig can be fattened for the
market in sixty days. Pig-dealers can tell the amount of flesh taken
on, by having first weighed the animal while it was being starved.
Before the fattening process begins, the creature must be starved
for three days; and, by the way, animals in general will take on fat
if subjected previously to a course of starvation; after the three
days of starvation, pig-breeders feed the animal lavishly. Breeders in
Thrace, when fattening pigs, give them a drink on the first day;
then they miss one, and then two days, then three and four, until
the interval extends over seven days. The pigs' meat used for
fattening is composed of barley, millet, figs, acorns, wild pears, and
cucumbers. These animals-and other animals that have warm
bellies-are fattened by repose. (Pigs also fatten the better by
being allowed to wallow in mud. They like to feed in batches of the
same age. A pig will give battle even to a wolf. ) If a pig be
weighed when living, you may calculate that after death its flesh will
weigh five-sixths of that weight, and the hair, the blood, and the
rest will weigh the other sixth. When suckling their young,
swinelike all other animals-get attenuated. So much for these animals.

7

Cattle feed on corn and grass, and fatten on vegetables that
tend to cause flatulency, such as bitter vetch or bruised beans or
bean-stalks. The older ones also will fatten if they be fed up after
an incision has been made into their hide, and air blown thereinto.
Cattle will fatten also on barley in its natural state or on barley
finely winnowed, or on sweet food, such as figs, or pulp from the
wine-press, or on elm-leaves. But nothing is so fattening as the
heat of the sun and wallowing in warm waters. If the horns of young
cattle be smeared with hot wax, you may mold them to any shape you
please, and cattle are less subject to disease of the hoof if you
smear the horny parts with wax, pitch, or olive oil. Herded cattle
suffer more when they are forced to change their pasture ground by
frost than when snow is the cause of change. Cattle grow all the
more in size when they are kept from sexual commerce over a number
of years; and it is with a view to growth in size that in Epirus the
so-called Pyrrhic kine are not allowed intercourse with the bull until
they are nine years old; from which circumstance they are nicknamed
the 'unbulled' kine. Of these Pyrrhic cattle, by the way, they say
that there are only about four hundred in the world, that they are the
private property of the Epirote royal family, that they cannot
thrive out of Epirus, and that people elsewhere have tried to rear
them, but without success.

8

Horses, mules, and asses feed on corn and grass, but are
fattened chiefly by drink. Just in proportion as beasts of burden
drink water, so will they more or less enjoy their food, and a place
will give good or bad feeding according as the water is good or bad.
Green corn, while ripening, will give a smooth coat; but such corn
is injurious if the spikes are too stiff and sharp. The first crop
of clover is unwholesome, and so is clover over which ill-scented
water runs; for the clover is sure to get the taint of the water.
Cattle like clear water for drinking; but the horse in this respect
resembles the camel, for the camel likes turbid and thick water, and
will never drink from a stream until he has trampled it into a
turbid condition. And, by the way, the camel can go without water
for as much as four days, but after that when he drinks, he drinks
in immense quantities.

9

The elephant at the most can eat nine Macedonian medimni of fodder
at one meal; but so large an amount is unwholesome. As a general
rule it can take six or seven medimni of fodder, five medimni of
wheat, and five mareis of wine-six cotylae going to the maris. An
elephant has been known to drink right off fourteen Macedonian
metretae of water, and another metretae later in the day.

Camels live for about thirty years; in some exceptional cases
they live much longer, and instances have been known of their living
to the age of a hundred. The elephant is said by some to live for
about two hundred years; by others, for three hundred.

10

Sheep and goats are graminivorous, but sheep browse assiduously
and steadily, whereas goats shift their ground rapidly, and browse
only on the tips of the herbage. Sheep are much improved in
condition by drinking, and accordingly they give the flocks salt every
five days in summer, to the extent of one medimnus to the hundred
sheep, and this is found to render a flock healthier and fatter. In
fact they mix salt with the greater part of their food; a large amount
of salt is mixed into their bran (for the reason that they drink
more when thirsty), and in autumn they get cucumbers with a sprinkling
of salt on them; this admixture of salt in their food tends also to
increase the quantity of milk in the ewes. If sheep be kept on the
move at midday they will drink more copiously towards evening; and
if the ewes be fed with salted food as the lambing season draws near
they will get larger udders. Sheep are fattened by twigs of the
olive or of the oleaster, by vetch, and bran of every kind; and
these articles of food fatten all the more if they be first
sprinkled with brine. Sheep will take on flesh all the better if
they be first put for three days through a process of starving. In
autumn, water from the north is more wholesome for sheep than water
from the south. Pasture grounds are all the better if they have a
westerly aspect.

Sheep will lose flesh if they be kept overmuch on the move or be
subjected to any hardship. In winter time shepherds can easily
distinguish the vigorous sheep from the weakly, from the fact that the
vigorous sheep are covered with hoar-frost while the weakly ones are
quite free of it; the fact being that the weakly ones feeling
oppressed with the burden shake themselves and so get rid of it. The
flesh of all quadrupeds deteriorates in marshy pastures, and is the
better on high grounds. Sheep that have flat tails can stand the
winter better than long-tailed sheep, and short-fleeced sheep than the
shaggy-fleeced; and sheep with crisp wool stand the rigour of winter
very poorly. Sheep are healthier than goats, but goats are stronger
than sheep. (The fleeces and the wool of sheep that have been killed
by wolves, as also the clothes made from them, are exceptionally
infested with lice. )

11

Of insects, such as have teeth are omnivorous; such as have a
tongue feed on liquids only, extracting with that organ juices from
all quarters. And of these latter some may be called omnivorous,
inasmuch as they feed on every kind of juice, as for instance, the
common fly; others are blood-suckers, such as the gadfly and the
horse-fly, others again live on the juices of fruits and plants. The
bee is the only insect that invariably eschews whatever is rotten;
it will touch no article of food unless it have a sweet-tasting juice,
and it is particularly fond of drinking water if it be found
bubbling up clear from a spring underground.

So much for the food of animals of the leading genera.

12

The habits of animals are all connected with either breeding and
the rearing of young, or with the procuring a due supply of food;
and these habits are modified so as to suit cold and heat and the
variations of the seasons. For all animals have an instinctive
perception of the changes of temperature, and, just as men seek
shelter in houses in winter, or as men of great possessions spend
their summer in cool places and their winter in sunny ones, so also
all animals that can do so shift their habitat at various seasons.

Some creatures can make provision against change without
stirring from their ordinary haunts; others migrate, quitting Pontus
and the cold countries after the autumnal equinox to avoid the
approaching winter, and after the spring equinox migrating from warm
lands to cool lands to avoid the coming heat. In some cases they
migrate from places near at hand, in others they may be said to come
from the ends of the world, as in the case of the crane; for these
birds migrate from the steppes of Scythia to the marshlands south of
Egypt where the Nile has its source. And it is here, by the way,
that they are said to fight with the pygmies; and the story is not
fabulous, but there is in reality a race of dwarfish men, and the
horses are little in proportion, and the men live in caves
underground. Pelicans also migrate, and fly from the Strymon to the
Ister, and breed on the banks of this river. They depart in flocks,
and the birds in front wait for those in the rear, owing to the fact
that when the flock is passing over the intervening mountain range,
the birds in the rear lose sight of their companions in the van.

Fishes also in a similar manner shift their habitat now out of
the Euxine and now into it. In winter they move from the outer sea
in towards land in quest of heat; in summer they shift from shallow
waters to the deep sea to escape the heat.

Weakly birds in winter and in frosty weather come down to the
plains for warmth, and in summer migrate to the hills for coolness.
The more weakly an animal is the greater hurry will it be in to
migrate on account of extremes of temperature, either hot or cold;
thus the mackerel migrates in advance of the tunnies, and the quail in
advance of the cranes. The former migrates in the month of Boedromion,
and the latter in the month of Maemacterion. All creatures are
fatter in migrating from cold to heat than in migrating from heat to
cold; thus the quail is fatter when he emigrates in autumn than when
he arrives in spring. The migration from cold countries is
contemporaneous with the close of the hot season. Animals are in
better trim for breeding purposes in spring-time, when they change
from hot to cool lands.

Of birds, the crane, as has been said, migrates from one end of
the world to the other; they fly against the wind. The story told
about the stone is untrue: to wit, that the bird, so the story goes,
carries in its inside a stone by way of ballast, and that the stone
when vomited up is a touchstone for gold.

The cushat and the rock-dove migrate, and never winter in our
country, as is the case also with the turtle-dove; the common
pigeon, however, stays behind. The quail also migrates; only, by the
way, a few quails and turtle-doves may stay behind here and there in
sunny districts. Cushats and turtle-doves flock together, both when
they arrive and when the season for migration comes round again.
When quails come to land, if it be fair weather or if a north wind
is blowing, they will pair off and manage pretty comfortably; but if a
southerly wind prevail they are greatly distressed owing to the
difficulties in the way of flight, for a southerly wind is wet and
violent. For this reason bird-catchers are never on the alert for
these birds during fine weather, but only during the prevalence of
southerly winds, when the bird from the violence of the wind is unable
to fly. And, by the way, it is owing to the distress occasioned by the
bulkiness of its body that the bird always screams while flying: for
the labour is severe. When the quails come from abroad they have no
leaders, but when they migrate hence, the glottis flits along with
them, as does also the landrail, and the eared owl, and the corncrake.
The corncrake calls them in the night, and when the birdcatchers
hear the croak of the bird in the nighttime they know that the
quails are on the move. The landrail is like a marsh bird, and the
glottis has a tongue that can project far out of its beak. The eared
owl is like an ordinary owl, only that it has feathers about its ears;
by some it is called the night-raven. It is a great rogue of a bird,
and is a capital mimic; a bird-catcher will dance before it and, while
the bird is mimicking his gestures, the accomplice comes behind and
catches it. The common owl is caught by a similar trick.

As a general rule all birds with crooked talons are
short-necked, flat-tongued, and disposed to mimicry. The Indian
bird, the parrot, which is said to have a man's tongue, answers to
this description; and, by the way, after drinking wine, the parrot
becomes more saucy than ever.

Of birds, the following are migratory-the crane, the swan, the
pelican, and the lesser goose.

13

Of fishes, some, as has been observed, migrate from the outer seas
in towards shore, and from the shore towards the outer seas, to
avoid the extremes of cold and heat.

Fish living near to the shore are better eating than deep-sea
fish. The fact is they have more abundant and better feeding, for
wherever the sun's heat can reach vegetation is more abundant,
better in quality, and more delicate, as is seen in any ordinary
garden. Further, the black shore-weed grows near to shore; the other
shore-weed is like wild weed. Besides, the parts of the sea near to
shore are subjected to a more equable temperature; and consequently
the flesh of shallow-water fishes is firm and consistent, whereas
the flesh of deep-water fishes is flaccid and watery.

The following fishes are found near into the shore-the
synodon, the black bream, the merou, the gilthead, the mullet, the red
mullet, the wrasse, the weaver, the callionymus, the goby, and
rock-fishes of all kinds. The following are deep-sea fishes--the
trygon, the cartilaginous fishes, the white conger, the serranus,
the erythrinus, and the glaucus. The braize, the sea-scorpion, the
black conger, the muraena, and the piper or sea-cuckoo are found alike
in shallow and deep waters. These fishes, however, vary for various
localities; for instance, the goby and all rock-fish are fat off the
coast of Crete. Again, the tunny is out of season in summer, when it
is being preyed on by its own peculiar louse-parasite, but after the
rising of Arcturus, when the parasite has left it, it comes into
season again. A number of fish also are found in sea-estuaries; such
as the saupe, the gilthead, the red mullet, and, in point of fact, the
greater part of the gregarious fishes. The bonito also is found in
such waters, as, for instance, off the coast of Alopeconnesus; and
most species of fishes are found in Lake Bistonis. The coly-mackerel
as a rule does not enter the Euxine, but passes the summer in the
Propontis, where it spawns, and winters in the Aegean. The tunny
proper, the pelamys, and the bonito penetrate into the Euxine in
summer and pass the summer there; as do also the greater part of
such fish as swim in shoals with the currents, or congregate in shoals
together. And most fish congregate in shoals, and shoal-fishes in
all cases have leaders.

Fish penetrate into the Euxine for two reasons, and firstly for
food. For the feeding is more abundant and better in quality owing
to the amount of fresh river-water that discharges into the sea, and
moreover, the large fishes of this inland sea are smaller than the
large fishes of the outer sea. In point of fact, there is no large
fish in the Euxine excepting the dolphin and the porpoise, and the
dolphin is a small variety; but as soon as you get into the outer
sea the big fishes are on the big scale. Furthermore, fish penetrate
into this sea for the purpose of breeding; for there are recesses
there favourable for spawning, and the fresh and exceptionally sweet
water has an invigorating effect upon the spawn. After spawning,
when the young fishes have attained some size, the parent fish swim
out of the Euxine immediately after the rising of the Pleiads. If
winter comes in with a southerly wind, they swim out with more or less
of deliberation; but, if a north wind be blowing, they swim out with
greater rapidity, from the fact that the breeze is favourable to their
own course. And, by the way, the young fish are caught about this time
in the neighbourhood of Byzantium very small in size, as might have
been expected from the shortness of their sojourn in the Euxine. The
shoals in general are visible both as they quit and enter the
Euxine. The trichiae, however, only can be caught during their
entry, but are never visible during their exit; in point of fact, when
a trichia is caught running outwards in the neighbourhood of
Byzantium, the fishermen are particularly careful to cleanse their
nets, as the circumstance is so singular and exceptional. The way of
accounting for this phenomenon is that this fish, and this one only,
swims northwards into the Danube, and then at the point of its
bifurcation swims down southwards into the Adriatic. And, as a proof
that this theory is correct, the very opposite phenomenon presents
itself in the Adriatic; that is to say, they are not caught in that
sea during their entry, but are caught during their exit.

Tunny-fish swim into the Euxine keeping the shore on their
right, and swim out of it with the shore upon their left. It is stated
that they do so as being naturally weak-sighted, and seeing better
with the right eye.

During the daytime shoal-fish continue on their way, but
during the night they rest and feed. But if there be moonlight, they
continue their journey without resting at all. Some people
accustomed to sea-life assert that shoal-fish at the period of the
winter solstice never move at all, but keep perfectly still wherever
they may happen to have been overtaken by the solstice, and this lasts
until the equinox.

The coly-mackerel is caught more frequently on entering than
on quitting the Euxine. And in the Propontis the fish is at its best
before the spawning season. Shoal-fish, as a rule, are caught in
greater quantities as they leave the Euxine, and at that season they
are in the best condition. At the time of their entrance they are
caught in very plump condition close to shore, but those are in
comparatively poor condition that are caught farther out to sea.
Very often, when the coly-mackerel and the mackerel are met by a south
wind in their exit, there are better catches to the southward than
in the neighbourhood of Byzantium. So much then for the phenomenon
of migration of fishes.

Now the same phenomenon is observed in fishes as in
terrestrial animals in regard to hibernation: in other words, during
winter fishes take to concealing themselves in out of the way
places, and quit their places of concealment in the warmer season.
But, by the way, animals go into concealment by way of refuge
against extreme heat, as well as against extreme cold. Sometimes an
entire genus will thus seek concealment; in other cases some species
will do so and others will not. For instance, the shell-fish seek
concealment without exception, as is seen in the case of those
dwelling in the sea, the purple murex, the ceryx, and all such like;
but though in the case of the detached species the phenomenon is
obvious-for they hide themselves, as is seen in the scallop, or they
are provided with an operculum on the free surface, as in the case
of land snails-in the case of the non-detached the concealment is
not so clearly observed. They do not go into hiding at one and the
same season; but the snails go in winter, the purple murex and the
ceryx for about thirty days at the rising of the Dog-star, and the
scallop at about the same period. But for the most part they go into
concealment when the weather is either extremely cold or extremely
hot.

14

Insects almost all go into hiding, with the exception of such of
them as live in human habitations or perish before the completion of
the year. They hide in the winter; some of them for several days,
others for only the coldest days, as the bee. For the bee also goes
into hiding: and the proof that it does so is that during a certain
period bees never touch the food set before them, and if a bee
creeps out of the hive, it is quite transparent, with nothing
whatsoever in its stomach; and the period of its rest and hiding lasts
from the setting of the Pleiads until springtime.

Animals take their winter-sleep or summer-sleep by concealing
themselves in warm places, or in places where they have been used to
lie concealed.

15

Several blooded animals take this sleep, such as the pholidotes or
tessellates, namely, the serpent, the lizard, the gecko, and the
river. crocodile, all of which go into hiding for four months in the
depth of winter, and during that time eat nothing. Serpents in general
burrow under ground for this purpose; the viper conceals itself
under a stone.

A great number of fishes also take this sleep, and notably,
the hippurus and coracinus in winter time; for, whereas fish in
general may be caught at all periods of the year more or less, there
is this singularity observed in these fishes, that they are caught
within a certain fixed period of the year, and never by any chance out
of it. The muraena also hides, and the orphus or sea-perch, and the
conger. Rock-fish pair off, male and female, for hiding (just as for
breeding); as is observed in the case of the species of wrasse
called the thrush and the owzel, and in the perch.

The tunny also takes a sleep in winter in deep waters, and
gets exceedingly fat after the sleep. The fishing season for the tunny
begins at the rising of the Pleiads and lasts, at the longest, down to
the setting of Arcturus; during the rest of the year they are hid
and enjoying immunity. About the time of hibernation a few tunnies
or other hibernating fishes are caught while swimming about, in
particularly warm localities and in exceptionally fine weather, or
on nights of full moon; for the fishes are induced (by the warmth or
the light) to emerge for a while from their lair in quest of food.

Most fishes are at their best for the table during the summer or
winter sleep.

The primas-tunny conceals itself in the mud; this may be
inferred from the fact that during a particular period the fish is
never caught, and that, when it is caught after that period, it is
covered with mud and has its fins damaged. In the spring these tunnies
get in motion and proceed towards the coast, coupling and breeding,
and the females are now caught full of spawn. At this time they are
considered as in season, but in autumn and in winter as of inferior
quality; at this time also the males are full of milt. When the
spawn is small, the fish is hard to catch, but it is easily caught
when the spawn gets large, as the fish is then infested by its
parasite. Some fish burrow for sleep in the sand and some in mud, just
keeping their mouths outside.

Most fishes hide, then, during the winter only, but crustaceans,
the rock-fish, the ray, and the cartilaginous species hide only during
extremely severe weather, and this may be inferred from the fact
that these fishes are never by any chance caught when the weather is
extremely cold. Some fishes, however, hide during the summer, as the
glaucus or grey-back; this fish hides in summer for about sixty
days. The hake also and the gilthead hide; and we infer that the
hake hides over a lengthened period from the fact that it is only
caught at long intervals. We are led also to infer that fishes hide in
summer from the circumstance that the takes of certain fish are made
between the rise and setting of certain constellations: of the
Dog-star in particular, the sea at this period being upturned from the
lower depths. This phenomenon may be observed to best advantage in the
Bosporus; for the mud is there brought up to the surface and the
fish are brought up along with it. They say also that very often, when
the sea-bottom is dredged, more fish will be caught by the second haul
than by the first one. Furthermore, after very heavy rains numerous
specimens become visible of creatures that at other times are never
seen at all or seen only at intervals.

16

A great number of birds also go into hiding; they do not all
migrate, as is generally supposed, to warmer countries. Thus,
certain birds (as the kite and the swallow) when they are not far
off from places of this kind, in which they have their permanent
abode, betake themselves thither; others, that are at a distance
from such places, decline the trouble of migration and simply hide
themselves where they are. Swallows, for instance, have been often
found in holes, quite denuded of their feathers, and the kite on its
first emergence from torpidity has been seen to fly from out some such
hiding-place. And with regard to this phenomenon of periodic torpor
there is no distinction observed, whether the talons of a bird be
crooked or straight; for instance, the stork, the owzel, the
turtle-dove, and the lark, all go into hiding. The case of the
turtledove is the most notorious of all, for we would defy any one
to assert that he had anywhere seen a turtle-dove in winter-time; at
the beginning of the hiding time it is exceedingly plump, and during
this period it moults, but retains its plumpness. Some cushats hide;
others, instead of hiding, migrate at the same time as the swallow.
The thrush and the starling hide; and of birds with crooked talons the
kite and the owl hide for a few days.

17

Of viviparous quadrupeds the porcupine and the bear retire into
concealment. The fact that the bear hides is well established, but
there are doubts as to its motive for so doing, whether it be by
reason of the cold or from some other cause. About this period the
male and the female become so fat as to be hardly capable of motion.
The female brings forth her young at this time, and remains in
concealment until it is time to bring the cubs out; and she brings
them out in spring, about three months after the winter solstice.
The bear hides for at least forty days; during fourteen of these
days it is said not to move at all, but during most of the
subsequent days it moves, and from time to time wakes up. A she-bear
in pregnancy has either never been caught at all or has been caught
very seldom. There can be no doubt but that during this period they
eat nothing; for in the first place they never emerge from their
hiding-place, and further, when they are caught, their belly and
intestines are found to be quite empty. It is also said that from no
food being taken the gut almost closes up, and that in consequence the
animal on first emerging takes to eating arum with the view of opening
up and distending the gut.

The dormouse actually hides in a tree, and gets very fat at that
period; as does also the white mouse of Pontus.

(Of animals that hide or go torpid some slough off what is
called their 'old-age'. This name is applied to the outermost skin,
and to the casing that envelops the developing organism. )

In discussing the case of terrestrial vivipara we stated that
the reason for the bear's seeking concealment is an open question.
We now proceed to treat of the tessellates. The tessellates for the
most part go into hiding, and if their skin is soft they slough off
their 'old-age', but not if the skin is shell-like, as is the shell of
the tortoise-for, by the way, the tortoise and the fresh water
tortoise belong to the tessellates. Thus, the old-age is sloughed
off by the gecko, the lizard, and above all, by serpents; and they
slough off the skin in springtime when emerging from their torpor, and
again in the autumn. Vipers also slough off their skin both in
spring and in autumn, and it is not the case, as some aver, that
this species of the serpent family is exceptional in not sloughing.
When the serpent begins to slough, the skin peels off at first from
the eyes, so that any one ignorant of the phenomenon would suppose the
animal were going blind; after that it peels off the head, and so
on, until the creature presents to view only a white surface all over.
The sloughing goes on for a day and a night, beginning with the head
and ending with the tail. During the sloughing of the skin an inner
layer comes to the surface, for the creature emerges just as the
embryo from its afterbirth.

All insects that slough at all slough in the same way; as the
silphe, and the empis or midge, and all the coleoptera, as for
instance the cantharus-beetle. They all slough after the period of
development; for just as the afterbirth breaks from off the young of
the vivipara so the outer husk breaks off from around the young of the
vermipara, in the same way both with the bee and the grasshopper.
The cicada the moment after issuing from the husk goes and sits upon
an olive tree or a reed; after the breaking up of the husk the
creature issues out, leaving a little moisture behind, and after a
short interval flies up into the air and sets a. chirping.

Of marine animals the crawfish and the lobster slough sometimes in
the spring, and sometimes in autumn after parturition. Lobsters have
been caught occasionally with the parts about the thorax soft, from
the shell having there peeled off, and the lower parts hard, from
the shell having not yet peeled off there; for, by the way, they do
not slough in the same manner as the serpent. The crawfish hides for
about five months. Crabs also slough off their old-age; this is
generally allowed with regard to the soft-shelled crabs, and it is
said to be the case with the testaceous kind, as for instance with the
large 'granny' crab. When these animals slough their shell becomes
soft all over, and as for the crab, it can scarcely crawl. These
animals also do not cast their skins once and for all, but over and
over again.

So much for the animals that go into hiding or torpidity, for
the times at which, and the ways in which, they go; and so much also
for the animals that slough off their old-age, and for the times at
which they undergo the process.

18

Animals do not all thrive at the same seasons, nor do they
thrive alike during all extremes of weather. Further animals of
diverse species are in a diverse way healthy or sickly at certain
seasons; and, in point of fact, some animals have ailments that are
unknown to others. Birds thrive in times of drought, both in their
general health and in regard to parturition, and this is especially
the case with the cushat; fishes, however, with a few exceptions,
thrive best in rainy weather; on the contrary rainy seasons are bad
for birds-and so by the way is much drinking-and drought is bad for
fishes. Birds of prey, as has been already stated, may in a general
way be said never to drink at all, though Hesiod appears to have
been ignorant of the fact, for in his story about the siege of Ninus
he represents the eagle that presided over the auguries as in the
act of drinking; all other birds drink, but drink sparingly, as is the
case also with all other spongy-lunged oviparous animals. Sickness
in birds may be diagnosed from their plumage, which is ruffled when
they are sickly instead of lying smooth as when they are well.

19

The majority of fishes, as has been stated, thrive best in rainy
seasons. Not only have they food in greater abundance at this time,
but in a general way rain is wholesome for them just as it is for
vegetation-for, by the way, kitchen vegetables, though artificially
watered, derive benefit from rain; and the same remark applies even to
reeds that grow in marshes, as they hardly grow at all without a
rainfall. That rain is good for fishes may be inferred from the fact
that most fishes migrate to the Euxine for the summer; for owing to
the number of the rivers that discharge into this sea its water is
exceptionally fresh, and the rivers bring down a large supply of food.
Besides, a great number of fishes, such as the bonito and the
mullet, swim up the rivers and thrive in the rivers and marshes. The
sea-gudgeon also fattens in the rivers, and, as a rule, countries
abounding in lagoons furnish unusually excellent fish. While most
fishes, then, are benefited by rain, they are chiefly benefited by
summer rain; or we may state the case thus, that rain is good for
fishes in spring, summer, and autumn, and fine dry weather in
winter. As a general rule what is good for men is good for fishes
also.

Fishes do not thrive in cold places, and those fishes suffer
most in severe winters that have a stone in their head, as the
chromis, the basse, the sciaena, and the braize; for owing to the
stone they get frozen with the cold, and are thrown up on shore.

Whilst rain is wholesome for most fishes, it is, on the
contrary, unwholesome for the mullet, the cephalus, and the
so-called marinus, for rain superinduces blindness in most of these
fishes, and all the more rapidly if the rainfall be superabundant. The
cephalus is peculiarly subject to this malady in severe winters; their
eyes grow white, and when caught they are in poor condition, and
eventually the disease kills them. It would appear that this disease
is due to extreme cold even more than to an excessive rainfall; for
instance, in many places and more especially in shallows off the coast
of Nauplia, in the Argolid, a number of fishes have been known to be
caught out at sea in seasons of severe cold. The gilthead also suffers
in winter; the acharnas suffers in summer, and loses condition. The
coracine is exceptional among fishes in deriving benefit from drought,
and this is due to the fact that heat and drought are apt to come
together.

Particular places suit particular fishes; some are naturally
fishes of the shore, and some of the deep sea, and some are at home in
one or the other of these regions, and others are common to the two
and are at home in both. Some fishes will thrive in one particular
spot, and in that spot only. As a general rule it may be said that
places abounding in weeds are wholesome; at all events, fishes
caught in such places are exceptionally fat: that is, such fishes a
a habit all sorts of localities as well. The fact is that
weed-eating fishes find abundance of their special food in such
localities, and carnivorous fish find an unusually large number of
smaller fish. It matters also whether the wind be from the north or
south: the longer fish thrive better when a north wind prevails, and
in summer at one and the same spot more long fish will be caught
than flat fish with a north wind blowing.

The tunny and the sword-fish are infested with a parasite
about the rising of the Dog-star; that is to say, about this time both
these fishes have a grub beside their fins that is nicknamed the
'gadfly'. It resembles the scorpion in shape, and is about the size of
the spider. So acute is the pain it inflicts that the sword-fish
will often leap as high out of the water as a dolphin; in fact, it
sometimes leaps over the bulwarks of a vessel and falls back on the
deck. The tunny delights more than any other fish in the heat of the
sun. It will burrow for warmth in the sand in shallow waters near to
shore, or will, because it is warm, disport itself on the surface of
the sea.

The fry of little fishes escape by being overlooked, for it is
only the larger ones of the small species that fishes of the large
species will pursue. The greater part of the spawn and the fry of
fishes is destroyed by the heat of the sun, for whatever of them the
sun reaches it spoils.

Fishes are caught in greatest abundance before sunrise and after
sunset, or, speaking generally, just about sunset and sunrise.
Fishermen haul up their nets at these times, and speak of the hauls
then made as the 'nick-of-time' hauls. The fact is, that at these
times fishes are particularly weak-sighted; at night they are at rest,
and as the light grows stronger they see comparatively well.

We know of no pestilential malady attacking fishes, such as
those which attack man, and horses and oxen among the quadrupedal
vivipara, and certain species of other genera, domesticated and
wild; but fishes do seem to suffer from sickness; and fishermen
infer this from the fact that at times fishes in poor condition, and
looking as though they were sick, and of altered colour, are caught in
a large haul of well-conditioned fish of their own species. So much
for sea-fishes.

20

River-fish and lake-fish also are exempt from diseases of a
pestilential character, but certain species are subject to special and
peculiar maladies. For instance, the sheat-fish just before the rising
of the Dog-star, owing to its swimming near the surface of the
water, is liable to sunstroke, and is paralysed by a loud peal of
thunder. The carp is subject to the same eventualities but in a
lesser degree. The sheatfish is destroyed in great quantities in
shallow waters by the serpent called the dragon. In the balerus and
tilon a worm is engendered about the rising of the Dog-star, that
sickens these fish and causes them to rise towards the surface,
where they are killed by the excessive heat. The chalcis is subject to
a very violent malady; lice are engendered underneath their gills in
great numbers, and cause destruction among them; but no other
species of fish is subject to any such malady.

If mullein be introduced into water it will kill fish in its
vicinity. It is used extensively for catching fish in rivers and
ponds; by the Phoenicians it is made use of also in the sea.

There are two other methods employed for catch-fish. It is a
known fact that in winter fishes emerge from the deep parts of
rivers and, by the way, at all seasons fresh water is tolerably
cold. A trench accordingly is dug leading into a river, and wattled at
the river end with reeds and stones, an aperture being left in the
wattling through which the river water flows into the trench; when the
frost comes on the fish can be taken out of the trench in weels.
Another method is adopted in summer and winter alike. They run
across a stream a dam composed of brushwood and stones leaving a small
open space, and in this space they insert a weel; they then coop the
fish in towards this place, and draw them up in the weel as they
swim through the open space.

Shell-fish, as a rule, are benefited by rainy weather. The
purple murex is an exception; if it be placed on a shore near to where
a river discharges, it will die within a day after tasting the fresh
water. The murex lives for about fifty days after capture; during this
period they feed off one another, as there grows on the shell a kind
of sea-weed or sea-moss; if any food is thrown to them during this
period, it is said to be done not to keep them alive, but to make them
weigh more.

To shell-fish in general drought is unwholesome. During dry
weather they decrease in size and degenerate in quality; and it is
during such weather that the red scallop is found in more than usual
abundance. In the Pyrrhaean Strait the clam was exterminated, partly
by the dredging-machine used in their capture, and partly by
long-continued droughts. Rainy weather is wholesome to the
generality of shellfish owing to the fact that the sea-water then
becomes exceptionally sweet. In the Euxine, owing to the coldness of
the climate, shellfish are not found: nor yet in rivers, excepting a
few bivalves here and there. Univalves, by the way, are very apt to
freeze to death in extremely cold weather. So much for animals that
live in water.

21

To turn to quadrupeds, the pig suffers from three diseases, one of
which is called branchos, a disease attended with swellings about
the windpipe and the jaws. It may break out in any part of the body;
very often it attacks the foot, and occasionally the ear; the
neighbouring parts also soon rot, and the decay goes on until it
reaches the lungs, when the animal succumbs. The disease develops with
great rapidity, and the moment it sets in the animal gives up
eating. The swineherds know but one way to cure it, namely, by
complete excision, when they detect the first signs of the disease.
There are two other diseases, which are both alike termed craurus. The
one is attended with pain and heaviness in the head, and this is the
commoner of the two, the other with diarrhoea. The latter is
incurable, the former is treated by applying wine fomentations to
the snout and rinsing the nostrils with wine. Even this disease is
very hard to cure; it has been known to kill within three or four
days. The animal is chiefly subject to branchos when it gets extremely
fat, and when the heat has brought a good supply of figs. The
treatment is to feed on mashed mulberries, to give repeated warm
baths, and to lance the under part of the tongue.

Pigs with flabby flesh are subject to measles about the legs,
neck, and shoulders, for the pimples develop chiefly in these parts.
If the pimples are few in number the flesh is comparatively sweet, but
if they be numerous it gets watery and flaccid. The symptoms of
measles are obvious, for the pimples show chiefly on the under side of
the tongue, and if you pluck the bristles off the chine the skin
will appear suffused with blood, and further the animal will be unable
to keep its hind-feet at rest. Pigs never take this disease while they
are mere sucklings. The pimples may be got rid of by feeding on this
kind of spelt called tiphe; and this spelt, by the way, is very good
for ordinary food. The best food for rearing and fattening pigs is
chickpeas and figs, but the one thing essential is to vary the food as
much as possible, for this animal, like animals in general lights in a
change of diet; and it is said that one kind of food blows the
animal out, that another superinduces flesh, and that another puts
on fat, and that acorns, though liked by the animal, render the
flesh flaccid. Besides, if a sow eats acorns in great quantities, it
will miscarry, as is also the case with the ewe; and, indeed, the
miscarriage is more certain in the case of the ewe than in the case of
the sow. The pig is the only animal known to be subject to measles.

22

Dogs suffer from three diseases; rabies, quinsy, and sore feet.
Rabies drives the animal mad, and ary animal whatever, excepting
man, will take the disease if bitten by a dog so afflicted; the
disease is fatal to the dog itself, and to any animal it may bite, man
excepted. Quinsy also is fatal to dogs; and only a few recover from
disease of the feet. The camel, like the dog, is subject to rabies.
The elephant, which is reputed to enjoy immunity from all other
illnesses, is occasionally subject to flatulency.

23

Cattle in herds are liable to two diseases, foot, sickness and
craurus. In the former their feet suffer from eruptions, but the
animal recovers from the disease without even the loss of the hoof. It
is found of service to smear the horny parts with warm pitch. In
craurus, the breath comes warm at short intervals; in fact, craurus in
cattle answers to fever in man. The symptoms of the disease are
drooping of the ears and disinclination for food. The animal soon
succumbs, and when the carcase is opened the lungs are found to be
rotten.

24

Horses out at pasture are free from all diseases excepting disease
of the feet. From this disease they sometimes lose their hooves: but
after losing them they grow them soon again, for as one hoof is
decaying it is being replaced by another. Symptoms of the malady are a
sinking in and wrinkling of the lip in the middle under the
nostrils, and in the case of the male, a twitching of the right
testicle.

Stall-reared horses are subject to very numerous forms of disease.
They are liable to disease called 'eileus'. Under this disease the
animal trails its hind-legs under its belly so far forward as almost
to fall back on its haunches; if it goes without food for several days
and turns rabid, it may be of service to draw blood, or to castrate
the male. The animal is subject also to tetanus: the veins get
rigid, as also the head and neck, and the animal walks with its legs
stretched out straight. The horse suffers also from abscesses. Another
painful illness afflicts them called the 'barley-surfeit'. The are a
softening of the palate and heat of the breath; the animal may recover
through the strength of its own constitution, but no formal remedies
are of any avail.

There is also a disease called nymphia, in which the animal is
said to stand still and droop its head on hearing flute-music; if
during this ailment the horse be mounted, it will run off at a
gallop until it is pulled. Even with this rabies in full force, it
preserves a dejected spiritless appearance; some of the symptoms are a
throwing back of the ears followed by a projection of them, great
languor, and heavy breathing. Heart-ache also is incurable, of which
the symptom is a drawing in of the flanks; and so is displacement of
the bladder, which is accompanied by a retention of urine and a
drawing up of the hooves and haunches. Neither is there any cure if
the animal swallow the grape-beetle, which is about the size of the
sphondyle or knuckle-beetle. The bite of the shrewmouse is dangerous
to horses and other draught animals as well; it is followed by
boils. The bite is all the more dangerous if the mouse be pregnant
when she bites, for the boils then burst, but do not burst
otherwise. The cicigna-called 'chalcis' by some, and 'zignis' by
others-either causes death by its bite or, at all events, intense
pain; it is like a small lizard, with the colour of the blind snake.
In point of fact, according to experts, the horse and the sheep have
pretty well as many ailments as the human species. The drug known
under the name of 'sandarace' or realgar, is extremely injurious to
a horse, and to all draught animals; it is given to the animal as a
medicine in a solution of water, the liquid being filtered through a
colander. The mare when pregnant apt to miscarry when disturbed by the
odour of an extinguished candle; and a similar accident happens
occasionally to women in their pregnancy. So much for the diseases
of the horse.

The so-called hippomanes grows, as has stated, on the foal,
and the mare nibbles it off as she licks and cleans the foal. All
the curious stories connected with the hippomanes are due to old wives
and to the venders of charms. What is called the 'polium' or foal's
membrane, is, as all the accounts state, delivered by the mother
before the foal appears.

A horse will recognize the neighing of any other horse with
which it may have fought at any previous period. The horse delights in
meadows and marshes, and likes to drink muddy water; in fact, if water
be clear, the horse will trample in it to make it turbid, will then
drink it, and afterwards will wallow in it. The animal is fond of
water in every way, whether for drinking or for bathing purposes;
and this explains the peculiar constitution of the hippopotamus or
river-horse. In regard to water the ox is the opposite of the horse;
for if the water be impure or cold, or mixed up with alien matter,
it will refuse to drink it.

25

The ass suffers chiefly from one particular disease which they
call 'melis'. It arises first in the head, and a clammy humour runs
down the nostrils, thick and red; if it stays in the head the animal
may recover, but if it descends into the lungs the animal will die. Of
all animals on its of its kind it is the least capable of enduring
extreme cold, which circumstance will account for the fact that the
animal is not found on the shores of the Euxine, nor in Scythia.

26

Elephants suffer from flatulence, and when thus afflicted can void
neither solid nor liquid residuum. If the elephant swallow earth-mould
it suffers from relaxation; but if it go on taking it steadily, it
will experience no harm. From time to time it takes to swallowing
stones. It suffers also from diarrhoea: in this case they administer
draughts of lukewarm water or dip its fodder in honey, and either
one or the other prescription will prove a costive. When they suffer
from insomnia, they will be restored to health if their shoulders be
rubbed with salt, olive-oil, and warm water; when they have aches in
their shoulders they will derive great benefit from the application of
roast pork. Some elephants like olive oil, and others do not. If there
is a bit of iron in the inside of an elephant it is said that it
will pass out if the animal takes a drink of olive-oil; if the
animal refuses olive-oil, they soak a root in the oil and give it
the root to swallow. So much, then, for quadrupeds.

27

Insects, as a general rule, thrive best in the time of year in
which they come into being, especially if the season be moist and
warm, as in spring.

In bee-hives are found creatures that do great damage to the
combs; for instance, the grub that spins a web and ruins the
honeycomb: it is called the 'cleros'. It engenders an insect like
itself, of a spider-shape, and brings disease into the swarm. There is
another insect resembling the moth, called by some the 'pyraustes',
that flies about a lighted candle: this creature engenders a brood
full of a fine down. It is never stung by a bee, and can only be got
out of a hive by fumigation. A caterpillar also is engendered in
hives, of a species nicknamed the teredo, or 'borer', with which
creature the bee never interferes. Bees suffer most when flowers are
covered with mildew, or in seasons of drought.

All insects, without exception, die if they be smeared over with
oil; and they die all the more rapidly if you smear their head with
the oil and lay them out in the sun.

28

Variety in animal life may be produced by variety of locality:
thus in one place an animal will not be found at all, in another it
will be small, or short-lived, or will not thrive. Sometimes this sort
of difference is observed in closely adjacent districts. Thus, in
the territory of Miletus, in one district cicadas are found while
there are none in the district close adjoining; and in Cephalenia
there is a river on one side of which the cicada is found and not on
the other. In Pordoselene there is a public road one side of which the
weasel is found but not on the other. In Boeotia the mole is found
in great abundance in the neighbourhood of Orchomenus, but there are
none in Lebadia though it is in the immediate vicinity, and if a
mole be transported from the one district to the other it will
refuse to burrow in the soil. The hare cannot live in Ithaca if
introduced there; in fact it will be found dead, turned towards the
point of the beach where it was landed. The horseman-ant is not
found in Sicily; the croaking frog has only recently appeared in the
neighbourhood of Cyrene. In the whole of Libya there is neither wild
boar, nor stag, nor wild goat; and in India, according to Ctesias-no
very good authority, by the way-there are no swine, wild or tame,
but animals that are devoid of blood and such as go into hiding or
go torpid are all of immense size there. In the Euxine there are no
small molluscs nor testaceans, except a few here and there; but in the
Red Sea all the testaceans are exceedingly large. In Syria the sheep
have tails a cubit in breadth; the goats have ears a span and a palm
long, and some have ears that flap down to the ground; and the
cattle have humps on their shoulders, like the camel. In Lycia goats
are shorn for their fleece, just as sheep are in all other
countries. In Libya the long-horned ram is born with horns, and not
the ram only, as Homer' words it, but the ewe as well; in Pontus, on
the confines of Scythia, the ram is without horns.

In Egypt animals, as a rule, are larger than their congeners
in Greece, as the cow and the sheep; but some are less, as the dog,
the wolf, the hare, the fox, the raven, and the hawk; others are of
pretty much the same size, as the crow and the goat. The difference,
where it exists, is attributed to the food, as being abundant in one
case and insufficient in another, for instance for the wolf and the
hawk; for provision is scanty for the carnivorous animals, small birds
being scarce; food is scanty also for the hare and for all frugivorous
animals, because neither the nuts nor the fruit last long.

In many places the climate will account for peculiarities;
thus in Illyria, Thrace, and Epirus the ass is small, and in Gaul
and in Scythia the ass is not found at all owing to the coldness of
the climate of these countries. In Arabia the lizard is more than a
cubit in length, and the mouse is much larger than our field-mouse,
with its hind-legs a span long and its front legs the length of the
first finger-joint. In Libya, according to all accounts, the length of
the serpents is something appalling; sailors spin a yarn to the effect
that some crews once put ashore and saw the bones of a number of oxen,
and that they were sure that the oxen had been devoured by serpents,
for, just as they were putting out to sea, serpents came chasing their
galleys at full speed and overturned one galley and set upon the crew.
Again, lions are more numerous in Libya, and in that district of
Europe that lies between the Achelous and the Nessus; the leopard is
more abundant in Asia Minor, and is not found in Europe at all. As a
general rule, wild animals are at their wildest in Asia, at their
boldest in Europe, and most diverse in form in Libya; in fact, there
is an old saying, 'Always something fresh in Libya. '

It would appear that in that country animals of diverse
species meet, on account of the rainless climate, at the
watering-places, and there pair together; and that such pairs will
often breed if they be nearly of the same size and have periods of
gestation of the same length. For it is said that they are tamed
down in their behaviour towards each other by extremity of thirst.
And, by the way, unlike animals elsewhere, they require to drink
more in wintertime than in summer: for they acquire the habit of not
drinking in summer, owing to the circumstance that there is usually no
water then; and the mice, if they drink, die. Elsewhere also
bastard-animals are born to heterogeneous pairs; thus in Cyrene the
wolf and the bitch will couple and breed; and the Laconian hound is
a cross between the fox and the dog. They say that the Indian dog is a
cross between the tiger and the bitch, not the first cross, but a
cross in the third generation; for they say that the first cross is
a savage creature. They take the bitch to a lonely spot and tie her
up: if the tiger be in an amorous mood he will pair with her; if not
he will eat her up, and this casualty is of frequent occurrence.

29

Locality will differentiate habits also: for instance, rugged
highlands will not produce the same results as the soft lowlands.
The animals of the highlands look fiercer and bolder, as is seen in
the swine of Mount Athos; for a lowland boar is no match even for a
mountain sow.

Again, locality is an important element in regard to the bite of
an animal. Thus, in Pharos and other places, the bite of the
scorpion is not dangerous; elsewhere-in Caria, for instances-where
scorpions are venomous as well as plentiful and of large size, the
sting is fatal to man or beast, even to the pig, and especially to a
black pig, though the pig, by the way, is in general most singularly
indifferent to the bite of any other creature. If a pig goes into
water after being struck by the scorpion of Caria, it will surely die.

There is great variety in the effects produced by the bites of
serpents. The asp is found in Libya; the so-called 'septic' drug is
made from the body of the animal, and is the only remedy known for the
bite of the original. Among the silphium, also, a snake is found,
for the bite or which a certain stone is said to be a cure: a stone
that is brought from the grave of an ancient king, which stone is
put into water and drunk off. In certain parts of Italy the bite of
the gecko is fatal. But the deadliest of all bites of venomous
creatures is when one venomous animal has bitten another; as, for
instance, a viper's after it has bitten a scorpion. To the great
majority of such creatures man's is fatal. There is a very little
snake, by some entitled the 'holy-snake', which is dreaded by even the
largest serpents. It is about an ell long, and hairy-looking; whenever
it bites an animal, the flesh all round the wound will at once
mortify. There is in India a small snake which is exceptional in
this respect, that for its bite no specific whatever is known.

30

Animals also vary as to their condition of health in connexion
with their pregnancy.

Testaceans, such as scallops and all the oyster-family, and
crustaceans, such as the lobster family, are best when with spawn.
Even in the case of the testacean we speak of spawning (or pregnancy);
but whereas the crustaceans may be seen coupling and laying their
spawn, this is never the case with testaceans. Molluscs are best in
the breeding time, as the calamary, the sepia, and the octopus.

Fishes, when they begin to breed, are nearly all good for the
table; but after the female has gone long with spawn they are good
in some cases, and in others are out of season. The maenis, for
instance, is good at the breeding time. The female of this fish is
round, the male longer and flatter; when the female is beginning to
breed the male turns black and mottled, and is quite unfit for the
table; at this period he is nicknamed the 'goat'.

The wrasses called the owzel and the thrush, and the smaris have
different colours at different seasons, as is the case with the
plumage of certain birds; that is to say, they become black in the
spring and after the spring get white again. The phycis also changes
its hue: in general it is white, but in spring it is mottled; it is
the only sea-fish which is said make a bed for itself, and the
female lays her spawn in this bed or nest. The maenis, as was
observed, changes its colour as does the smaris, and in summer-time
changes back from whitish to black, the change being especially marked
about the fins and gills. The coracine, like the maenis, is in best
condition at breeding time; the mullet, the basse, and scaly fishes in
general are in bad condition at this period. A few fish are in much
the same condition at all times, whether with spawn or not, as the
glaucus. Old fishes also are bad eating; the old tunny is unfit even
for pickling, as a great part of its flesh wastes away with age, and
the same wasting is observed in all old fishes. The age of a scaly
fish may be told by the size and the hardness of its scales. An old
tunny has been caught weighing fifteen talents, with the span of its
tail two cubits and a palm broad.

River-fish and lake-fish are best after they have discharged the
spawn in the case of the female and the milt in the case of the
male: that is, when they have fully recovered from the exhaustion of
such discharge. Some are good in the breeding time, as the saperdis,
and some bad, as the sheat-fish. As a general rule, the male fish is
better eating than the female; but the reverse holds good of the
sheat-fish. The eels that are called females are the best for the
table: they look as though they were female, but they really are not
so.