OF FISHES IN GENERA!-.. 
3 * 
mid ft that fecurity which they enjoy, and the eafe with 
which they can repel the hoftility of the inimical tribes, 
they run but little hazard of being deftroyed by their ra- 
pacity. 
Section V. 
Of the Growth , Longevity, and Dietical Ufes of Fi/h. 
As the dangers to which the progeny of all the fpinous 
fifties, while in the form of ova, and in their nafcent 
hate, are innumerable, and furrounding them on every 
fide, Nature has happily ordered, that they fhould re- 
main but a fhort time in that defencelefs condition. The 
period at which the different fpecies arrive at their ap- 
pointed fiz.e, is not exa&ly afcertained ; but the genera- 
lity of naturalifts agree in reckoning it extremely lhort *. 
Ariftotle, and Pliny who copied him, feem both to have 
committed a miftake, when they affigned only two years 
for the life of the tunny + , a fifti which approaches to 
to the fize of a whale. This fpecies had various differ- 
ent names affigned it, till it arrived at its fifth year, whew 
it received the appellation of a whale ; a circumftance from 
which we muft conclude, that the ancients in general en- 
tertained a very different idea of its longevity $. Of a 
fimilar 
* Rondeletius, de pifeibus. 
t Vita Thynnis longiflima biennio. Plinii Hift. Anim. 
1 During the firft year, they were called Scordyla; the fecond, Palanti ' 
the third, Thymus; the fourth, Orcyni; and the fifth, Cetf. 
