SCOMBBBID^. 187 



use;* and Persius speaks of poems too popular to be 

 made into retail ' cornets' of this sort.f As to the By- 

 zantine term auxidas, Aristotle refers it to the speedy 

 growth of the juvenile thunny.J All fish, he adds, in- 

 crease rapidly ia size, especially in the waters of the 

 Euxine, which are so particularly favourable to their de- 

 velopment, that amias (a species of thunny) may be seen 

 to enlarge. § A mere reference to the rate of growth 

 of the auxidas wiU best show the accuracy of the great 

 Greek naturalist here, and also the correctness of the 

 Byzantiae designation. The roes deposited at the be- 

 ginning of June, shortly afterwards become young fry, 

 and at the end of the first month are about the size of 

 gudgeons, and weigh between an ounce and a half and 

 two ounces ; by the end of the next month, their volume 

 and weight are trebled ; by the time October is out, 

 these infants of four months old are twentyfold their 

 original bulk, and weigh above two pounds; an iacre- 

 ment of bulk and weight which greatly exceeds not only 

 that of the inmates of lakes, rivers, and ponds, j] but of 

 those also which, in common with themselves, fatten 

 upon sea-water. AU do not live to exhibit this rapid 

 growth : no sooner has the mass of roe become fertilized, 

 than the unnatural mother begins to devour it, and thus by 

 far the greater portion of the nascent brood never reaches 

 maturity. Those that escape the voracity of their infan- 



* ' Ne nigram cito raptus in ouliuam 



Cordylas madida tegas papyro.' 



f ' Nee scombros metuenda carmina — nee thus.' 



^ Aia TO ev oKiyats rjfiepats av^dv€(rdai. 



§ nap' T]jiepav iinbrjkas av^ovrai. 



II Few fresh- water fish grow so rapidly as pike and carp ; yet 

 the former, during its first years, seldom attains a foot in length, 

 while carp take six years to put three pounds of flesh upon their 

 bones. 



