108 THE HISTOHT OF ANIMALS, [u. V. 



country at the time of the solstice, but they always occur in 

 the Sicilian Sea. The halcyon produces five eggs. 



4. The sethuia and the larus hatch their young among the 

 rocks on the sea side, and produce two or three, the larus 

 during the summer, and the sethuia at the beginning of the 

 spring, immediately after the equinox ; it sets upon its eggs 

 like other birds ; neither of these kinds conceal themselves. 

 The halcyon is the rarest of all, for it is only seen at the 

 season of the setting of the pleiades, and at the solstice, and 

 it first appears at seaports, flying as much as round a ship, 

 and immediately vanishing away. Stesichorus also speaks 

 of it in the same manner. 



5. The nightingale produces her young at the beginning 

 of summer. She produces five or six eggs. She conceals 

 herself from the autumn to the beginning of spring. Insects 

 copulate and produce their young during the winter when 

 ever the days are fine, and the wind in the south, at least 

 such of them as do not conceal themselves, as the fly and 

 ant. &quot;Wild animals produce their young once a year, unless, 

 like the hare, they breed while they are nursing their young. 



CHAPTER IX. 



1. FISH also generally breed once a year, as the chyti. All 

 those which are caught in a net are called chyti ; the thyn- 

 nus, palamis, cestreus, chalais, colias, chromis, psetta, and 

 such like, the labrax is an exception, for this alone of them 

 all breeds twice a year, and the second fry of these are much 

 weaker. The trichias 1 and rock fish breed twice, the trigla is 

 the only one that breeds three times a year. This is shewn 

 by the fry, which appear three times at certain places. 



2. The scorpius breeds twice, and so does the sargus, in 

 spring and autumn, the salpa once only in the spring. The 

 tliynnis breeds once, but as some of the fry are produced 

 at first, and others afterwards, it appears to breed twice. 

 The first fry makes its appearance in the month of Decem 

 ber, after the solstice, the second in the spring. The male 

 thynnis is different from the female, for the female has a fin 

 under the abdomen, called aphareus, which the male has not. 



3. Among the selachea, the rhine alone breeds twice in 

 the year; at the beginning of the autumn, and at the period 



1 Clupea Sprottua. 



