B. VIII.] THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS. 201 



Pleiades. For the water is disturbed at this season by the 

 mud which is stirred up by contrary winds, otherwise it is 

 useless to attempt to obtain them. When dead, eels do 

 not rise and float on the surface, like other fishes, for their 

 stomach is small ; a few of them are fat, but this is not 

 usually the case. 



6. When taken out of the water, they will live five or six 

 days ; if the wind is in the north they will live longer than 

 if it is in the south. If they are removed from the ponds 

 to the eel preserves during the summer they perish, but 

 not if removed in the winter ; neither will they bear violent 

 changes, for if they are taken and plunged into cold water, 

 they often perish in great numbers. They are suffocated 

 also if kept in a small quantity of water. This takes place 

 also in other fish, which are suffocated if kept in a small 

 quantity of water which is never changed, like animals 

 which breathe air when enclosed in a small quantity of 

 air. Some eels live seven or eight years. Fresh- water fish 

 make use of food, and devour each other, as well as plants 

 and roots, or anything else that they can find in the mud ; 

 they generally feed in the night, and during the day dwell 

 in deep holes. This is the nature of the food of fish. 



CHAPTER V. 



1. ALL birds with crooked claws are carnivorous, nor are 

 they able to eat corn even when put in their mouths. All 

 the eagles belong to this class and the kites, and both the 

 hawks, the pigeon hawk namely, and the sparrow hawk. 

 These differ in size from each other, and so does the trior- 

 ches. This bird is as large as the kite, and is visible at all 

 seasons of the year ; the osprey and vulture also belong 

 to this class. The osprey is as large as the eagle, and ash- 

 ,oloured. There are two kinds of vultures, one small and 

 whitish, the other large and cinereous. 



2. Some of the night birds also have crooked claws, as 

 the nycticorax, owl, and bryas. The bryas resembles an 

 owl in appearance, but it is as large as an eagle ; the eleos, 

 segolius, and scops also belong to this class. The eleos is 

 larger than a domestic fowl, the segolius is about the size of 

 that bird, they both hunt the jay. The scops is less than 



