Generae 
tion, 
©3412 E E TS Clafs IV. 
change of habitation, but alfo for the fake of prey, 
feeding on the {nails 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 eagerly take 
fhelter in a whifp of ftraw flung into a pond in fe- 
vere weather, which has fometimes been practifed 
as a method of taking them. A/dertus* goes fo far 
as to fay, that he has known eels to take fhelter in 
a hay-rick, yet all perifhed thro’ excefs of cold. 
It has. been obferved, that in the river Nyne** 
there is a variety of {mall eel, with a leffer head and 
narrower mouth than the common kind, that is 
found in clufters in the bottom of the river, and is 
called the Bed-eel: thefe are fometimes rouzed up 
by violent floods, and are never found at that time 
with meat in their ftomachs. ‘This bears fuch an 
analogy with the cluftering of blindworms in their 
quiefcent ftate, that we cannot but confider it as a 
further proof of a partial agreement in the nature 
of the two genera. | | 
The antients adopted a moft wild opinion about 
the generation of thefe fifh, believing them to be 
either created from the mud, or that the fcrapings 
of their bodies which they left on the ftones, were 
animated and became young eels. Some moderns 
gave into thefe opinions, and into others that were 
equally extravagant. They could not account for 
° 
il PE map. Northampt. 419, Pliny obferves, that the 
eels of the lake Benacus colleé&t together in the fame manner in 
the month of O@oer, poflibly to retreat from the winter’s cold. 
sib. ix. Ce 220 
the 
