BOOK IX. Lxxiv. 162-hxxv. 165 



of the equinox ; soft fish in the spring ; the cuttle- 

 fish in all the months — its eggs stick together with 

 an inky gum Hke a bunch of grapes, and the male 

 directs his breath upon them, otherwise they are 

 barren. Polyps mate in winter and lay eggs in 

 spring that chister in a twisting coil ; and they are 

 so prohfic that when they are killed the cavity of 

 their head will not hold the multitude of eggs that 

 they carried in it when pregnant. They lay them 

 after seven weeks, many of them perishing because 

 of their number. Langoustes and the rest of the 

 species with rather thin shells deposit their eggs 

 underneath them and so hatch them ; the female 

 polyp now sits on the eggs and now forms a closed 

 cavern with her tentacles intei"twined in a lattice. 

 The sepia lays on land among reeds or wherever 

 there is seaweed growing, and hatches after a fort- 

 night. The cuttle-fish produces its eggs in deep 

 water clustered together Hke those of the sepia. 

 The purple-fish, the murex and their kind spawn 

 in spring. Sea-urchins have eggs at the fuU moons 

 in winter, and snails are born in the winter time. 



LXXV. The electric ray is found having broods ReproducUon 

 numbering eighty ; also it produces exceedingly species of 

 small eggs inside it, shifting them to another part of ■''■'''• 

 the womb and emitting them there ; and similarly 

 all the species that we have designated" cartilaginous : 

 thus it comes about that these are the only fish 

 kinds that are both viviparous and oviparous. 

 With the catfish alone of all species the male 

 guards the eggs, often for as long as 50 days at 

 a time, to prevent their being eaten by other fish. 

 The females of a\\ the other species spawn in three 

 days if a male has touched them. 



275 



