TOO THE HISTOET OF ANIMALS. [B. VL 



the batrachus the most so among the selache. They are, 

 however, rare, for they perish very readily ; they oviposit in 

 shoals and near the land. 



4. The selache, as being viviparous, are less productive. 

 These are particularly preserved by their large size. The 

 belone is late in producing its young, and many of them are 

 burst by their ova in the act of parturition ; for these ova 

 are not so numerous as they are large. They surround the 

 parent as if they were phalangia; for she produces them 

 attached to herself, and if any one touches them they make 

 their escape. The atherina deposits her ova by rubbing her 

 abdomen against the sand. The thynni burst with fat. They 

 live two years. The fishermen argue thus : when the thyn- 

 nides fail one year, the thynni fail the year after. They 

 appear to be a year older than the pelamus. 



5. The thynni and scombri copulate at the end of Fe- 

 bruary, and produce their young at the beginning of June. 

 They produce their ova, as it were, in a purse. The growth 

 of the thynnides is rapid ; for when these fish produce their 

 young in the Pontus, they produce from the ovum creatures 

 which some persons call scordylse, and the Byzantines call 

 auxidae, because they grow in a few days. They go out in 

 the autumn with the thynnus, and return in the spring as 

 pelamides. Nearly all other fish grow rapidly, but those in 

 the Pontus more rapidly than in other places ; for the amia3 

 there increase visibly every day. It is necessary to re- 

 member that the same fish have not in the same place the 

 identical time of coition and gestation, nor the same period 

 of reproduction and completion of their offspring. For those 

 which are called coracini produce their ova at the time of 

 wheat harvest, though, generally speaking, the order of their 

 reproduction is that which I have mentioned. 



6. The conger also becomes pregnant, though this circum- 

 stance is not equally distinct everywhere on account of its 

 fat ; for the organ of reproduction is long, like that of ser- 

 pents. It becomes distinct, however, when laid upon the 

 fire ; for the fat smokes and consumes away, and the ova, 

 when pressed, jump out with a cracking noise. If any 

 person will feel and rub them with the finger, the fat will 

 appear smooth and the ova rough to the touch. Some con- 

 gers have fat but no ova ; and others, on the contrary, have 



