540 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOET. [BookX. 



CHAP. 81. (61.) THE ONLY WINGED ANIMAL THAT IS VIVIPAROUS, 

 AND NURTURES ITS YOUNG WITH ITS MILK. 



Among the winged animals, the only one that is viviparous 

 is the bat ; it is the only one, too, that has wings formed of a 

 membrane. This is, also, the only winged creature that feeds 

 its young with milk from the breast. The mother clasps her 

 two young ones as she flies, and so carries them along with 

 her. This animal, too, is said to have but one joint in the 

 haunch, and to be particularly fond of gnats. 



CHAP. 82. (62.) TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS THAT ARE OVIPAROUS. 



VARIOUS KINDS OF SERPENTS. 



Again, among the terrestrial animals, there are the serpents 

 that are oviparous ; of which, as yet, we have not spoken. These 

 creatures couple by clasping each other, and entwine so closely 

 around one another, that they might be taken for only one 

 animal with two heads. The male viper thrusts 37 its head 

 into the mouth of the female, which gnaws it in the transports 

 of its passion. This, too, is the only one among the terrestrial 

 animals that lays eggs within its body of one colour, and soft, 

 like those of fishes. On the third day it hatches its young in 

 the uterus, and then excludes them, one every day, and gene- 

 rally twenty in number ; the last ones become so impatient 

 of their confinement, that they force a passage through the 

 sides of their parent, and so kill her. Other serpents, again, 

 lay eggs attached to one another, and then bury them in the 

 earth ; the young being hatched in the following year. Croco- 

 diles sit on their eggs in turns, first the male, and then the 

 female. But let us now turn to the generation of the rest of 

 the terrestrial animals. 



CHAP. 83. (63.) GENERATION OF ALL KINDS OF TERRESTRIAL 

 ANIMALS. 



The only one among the bipeds that is viviparous is man. 

 Han is the only animal that repents of his first embraces ; sad 

 augury, indeed, of life, that its very origin should thus cause 

 repentance ! Other animals have stated times in the year for 

 their embraces; but man, as we have already 38 observed, em- 



37 This is probably fabulous. 38 B. vii. c. 4. 



