Class IV. E £ K #43 



change of habitation, hut alfo for the fake of prey, 

 feeding on the fnails it finds in its paffage. 



During winter it beds itfelf deep in the mud, 

 and continues in a ftate of reft like the ferpent 

 kind. It is very impatient of cold, and will ea- 

 gerly take fhelter in a whifp of flraw flung into a 

 pond in fevere weather, which has fometimes been 

 pradlifed as a method of taking them, Alhrtus'* 

 goes fo far as to fay, that he has known eels to 

 Ihelter in a hay- rick, yet all perifhed through ex- 

 cefs of cold. 



It has been obferved, that in the river Nynef^ 

 there is a variety of fmall eel, with a lefler head and 

 narrower mouth than the common kind, that it is 

 found in clufters in the bottom of the river, and is 

 called the Bed-eel : thefe are fometimes roufed up by 

 violent floods, and are never found at that time witiv 

 meat in their ftomachs. This bears firch an analogy 

 with the cluftering of blindworms in their quief- 

 cent ftate, that we cannot but confidjer it as a fur- 

 ther proof of a partial agreement in the nature of 

 the two genera. 



The ancients adopted a moft wild opinion about Gekera- 

 the generation of thefe fifh, believing them to be 

 €ither created from the mud, or that the fcrapings 



* Geftw^ fife. 45. 



•^ Mortonh HiJ}. Korthampt. 419. f//>^ obferves, that the 

 eels of the lake Benacus collect together in the fame manner in 

 the month of OSiaber^ pofnbly to retreat from th.Q v/inter^s 

 ?old> Lib, ix. <r. 22, 



of 



TKJN*. 



