540 PLINY'S ISTATUEAL HISTOBT. [Book X. 
CHAP. 81. (61.) THE ONLY WI^^GED ANIMAL THAT IS YITIPABOUS, 
AND NUETT7RES ITS YOTJNG WITH ITS MILK. 
Among the winged animals, the only one that is viviparous 
is the bat ; it is the only one, too, that has wings formed of a 
membrane. This is, also, the only winged creature that feeds 
its young with milk from the breast. The mother clasps her 
two young ones as she flies, and so carries them along with 
her. This animal, too, is said to have but one joint in the 
haunch, and to be particularly fond of gnats. 
CHAP. 82. (62.) TEERESTEIAL ANIMALS THAT AEE OVIPAEOUS. 
VAEIOUS EINDS OF SEEPENTS. 
Again, among the terrestrial animals, there are the serpents 
that are oviparous ; of which, as yet, we have not spoken. These 
creatures couple by clasping each other, and entwine so closeljr 
around one another, that they might be taken for only one 
animal with two heads. The male viper thrusts its head 
into the mouth of the female, which gnaws it in the transports 
of its passion. This, too, is the only one among the terrestrial 
animals that lays eggs within its body — of one colour, and soft, 
like those of fishes. On the third day it hatches its young in 
the uterus, and then excludes them, one every day, and gene- 
rally twenty in number ; the last ones become so impatient 
of their confinement, that they force a passage through the 
sides of their parent, and so kill her. Other serpents, again, 
lay eggs attached to one another, and then bury them in the 
earth ; the young being hatched in the following year. Croco- 
diles sit on their eggs in turns, first the male, and then the 
female. Eut let us now turn to the generation of the rest of 
the terrestrial animals. 
CHAP. 83. (63.) — GENERATION OF ALL KINDS OF TEEEESTEIAL 
ANIMALS. 
The only one among the bipeds that is viviparous is man. 
Man is the only animal that repents of his first embraces ; sad 
augury, indeed, of life, that its very origin should thus cause . 
repentance ! Other animals have stated times in the year for 
their embraces ; but man, as we have already observed, em- 
37 This is probably fabulous. 
3^ B. vii. c. 4. 
