Chap. 23.] riSHES. 391 



CHAP. 22. (16.) THAT AUGUEIES AEE DEEIVED FROM FISHES. 



Auguries are also derived from this department of Nature, 

 and fishes afford presages of coming events. While Augustus "^ 

 was walking on the sea-shore, during the time of the Sicilian 

 war, a fish leapt out of the sea, and fell at his feet. The di- 

 viners, who were consulted, stated that this was a proof that 

 those would fall beneath the feet of Caesar who at that moment 

 were in possession of the seas — it was just at this time that 

 Sextus Pompeius had adopted'- Neptune as his father, so elated 

 was he with his successes by sea. 



CHAP. 23. WHAT KINDS OF FISHES HAVE NO MALES. 



The females of fishes are larger"^ in size than the males, and 

 in some kinds there are no males"* at all, as in the erythini'^ 

 and the channi ;"® for all of these that are taken are found to 



"^ In confirmation of this, Suetonius says, "The day before Augustus 

 fought the sea-battle oiF Sicily, while he was walking on the sea-shore, a 

 fish leapt out of the sea and fell at his feet." 



'■^ Appian tells us, B. v., that Sextus Pompeius, on gaining some suc- 

 cesses against Augustus at sea, caused himself to be called the " Son of 

 Neptune," as having been adopted by that divinity. There is also a coin 

 of Pompey extant, whicli attests that he adopted the surname of " Nep- 

 tunius." 



'3 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 5. Cuvier remarks, that this is true, 

 and more especially during the spawning season. 



■'■* Aristotle says the same, but with the expression of some doubt as 

 to the truth of ttie assertion. B. vi. c. 13. 



''^ The erythinus is supposed to be the roach, or rochet, of the present 

 day, and the channe, the ruff or perch. Ovid, in his Halieuticon, 1. 107, 

 alludes to the same notion that is here mentioned : " And the channe, 

 that reproduces itself, deprived of two-fold parents." Cuvier remarks, 

 that, wonderful as these assertions may be, they are not devoid, to all ap- 

 pearance, of a certain foundation ; for that Cavolini has obser^'ed in the 

 Perca cabrilla and Perca scriba of liinnseus, a species of hermaphroditism ; 

 the ovary ha\ing always in the interior a lobe, which, from its conforma- 

 tion, would appear to be for the milt ; and that he is strongly of opinion 

 that in this species, and some others of the same genus, all the fish produce 

 eggs, and fecundate them themselves. 



'•^ Cmaer says, that the channe is the Perca cabrilla of Linnaeus, one of 

 the serrans or trumpet-fish of the coasts of Provence. According to Fors- 

 kal, Fauna Arabica, and Sonnini, it still has the name among the Turks 

 and modern Greeks, of " chani," or "channo," and it was in these that 

 Cavolini observed the singular organization previously mentioned. Ac- 

 cording to Athenseus, B. vii., Aristotle has described this fish as of a red 



