162 THE HlSTOIM OF ANIMALS. [B. VI. 



pristis and the bos. For none of these have an ovum, but 

 a proper foetus, from which, when perfected, an animal is 

 developed, as in man and the viviparous quadrupeds. The 

 dolphin usually produces one, and sometimes two young 

 ones. The whale generally and usually produces two and 

 sometimes one. The phocaena is similar to the dolphin, 

 for it is like a small dolphin. It is produced in the Pontus. 

 In some respects the phocaena differs from the dolphin, for 

 its size is smaller, it is wider in the back, and its colour is 

 blue. Many persons say that the phocseua is a kind of 

 dolphin. 



2. All these creatures which have a blow-hole, breathe 

 and inhale air ; and the dolphin has been observed while 

 asleep with the muzzle above the water, and it snores in 

 its sleep. The dolphin and phocaena give milk and suckle 

 their young. They also receive their young into them 

 selves. The growth of the young dolphins is rapid, for 

 they attain their full size in ten years. The female is preg 

 nant for ten months. The dolphin produces her young 

 in the summer-time, and at no other season. They seem 

 also to disappear for thirty days during the season of the 

 dog-star. The young follow their dam for a long while, 

 and it is an animal much attached to its offspring. It lives 

 many years ; for some have been known to live twenty-five 

 or thirty years ; for fishermen have marked them by cutting 

 their tails and then giving them their liberty. In this way 

 their age was known. 



3. The seal is amphibious, for it does not inhale water, 

 but breathes and sleeps. It produces its young on land, 

 but near the shore, in the manner of animals with feet ; but 

 it lives the greater part of its time, and obtains its food in 

 the sea, wherefore it is to be considered among aquatic 

 animals. It is properly viviparous, and produces a living 

 creature, and a chorion, and it brings forth the other mem 

 branes like a sheep. It produces one or two, never more 

 than three young ones. It has also mammae, so that it 

 suckles its young like quadrupeds. It produces its young 

 like the human subject, at all seasons of the year, but es 

 pecially with the earliest goats. 



4. When the young are twelve days old, it leads them to 

 the water several times in the day, in order to habituate 



