Chap. 75.] 
FISHES. 
465 
a year, being the only^^ one that does so at the setting of the* 
Yergiliae in autumn. Most fish spawn in the three months of 
April, May, and June. The salpa brings forth in the autumn, 
the sargus, the torpedo, and the squalus^ about the time of the 
autumnal equinox. The soft fishes^ bring forth in spring, the 
ssepia every month in the year ; its eggs adhere together with, 
a kind of black glutinous substance, in appearance like a bunch 
of grapes, and the male is very careful to go among them and 
breathe* upon them, as otherwise they would be barren. The 
polypi couple in winter, and produce eggs in the spring twisted 
in spiral clusters, in a similar manner to the tendrils of the 
vine ; and so remarkably prolific are they, that when the ani- 
mal is killed in a state of pregnancy, the cavities of the head 
are quite unable to contain the multitude^ of eggs enclosed 
therein. They bring forth these eggs at the fiftieth day, but in 
consequence of the vast number of them, great multitudes 
perish. Cray-fish, and other sea-animals with a thinner crust, 
lay their eggs one upon the other, and then sit upon them. 
The female polypus sometimes sits upon its eggs, and at other 
times closes the entrance of its retreat by spreading out its 
feelers, interlaced like a net. The ssepia brings forth on dry 
land, among reeds or such sea- weed as it may find growing 
there, and hatches its eggs on the fifteenth day. The 
loligo produces its eggs out at sea, clustered together like 
those of the saepia. The purple,^ the murex, and other fishes 
of the same kind, bring forth in the spring. Sea-urchins have 
their eggs at full moon during the winter ; sea- snails also are 
produced during the winter season. 
CHAP. 75. — FISHES WHICH AEE BOTH OVIPAROUS AITD VIVIPAEOTJS. 
The torpedo is known to have as many as eighty young 
Sola autumno, occasu Vergiliarum.'* It seems questionable whether 
the reading should not be solea the sole in autumn, at the setting of 
the Yergiliae." ^ The Pleiades. 
2 See c. 40 of the present Book. 
3 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 11. 
* Prosequitur afflatu." Aristotle says that it pours over them its ink 
or atramentum, Kara^va^ top OoXov. 
5 Philostratus, Hist. B. v. c. 17, says that so full is it of eggs, that after 
it is dead they will more than fill a vessel far larger than the cavities of its 
head. 
^ Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 14. 
VOL. II. 
Our periwinkles. 
H H 
