PREFACE.

The following Translation of Aristotle’s History of Animals
has been made from the text of Schneider. In a work
of considerable difficulty it is hardly possible entirely to
avoid errors; but it is hoped that those which have escaped
are neither numerous nor important. The notes of
Schneider have been consulted throughout; and in places
of difficulty the English translation by Taylor, the French
of Camus, and the German of Strack, have been severally
referred to.

The work itself is the most ancient and celebrated contribution
to science which has come down to us; and it is
hardly possible, when we consider the means of observation
which were accessible at the time, to imagine a work of
more accurate observation. From the numerous quotations
in which our author avails himself of the experience of
his predecessors in the same field, as well as corrects
their errors, there can be no doubt that Aristotle had the
advantage of many works which have perished in the lapse
of ages. In the Appendix to the present Translation
will be found the Essay of Schneider on the sources
whence Aristotle derived his knowledge of the animals he
describes; and these sources, together with his own accurate
[Pg iv]
observations, are probably sufficient to account for the
correct knowledge of the history of animals displayed
throughout the work.

It is right, perhaps, to observe in this place, that Dr.
Smith, in his Dictionary of Biography, speaks of the ‘History
of Animals’ as partly the result of the royal liberality
of Alexander; and doubtless Aristotle would gladly have
introduced into his work any fresh materials which might
have been made available to him either during his residence
at the Macedonian court, or by the subsequent victories of
Alexander in the East, if the information so obtained had
reached Athens in sufficient time to be incorporated. But
in the first instance he would naturally use the materials
ready to his hand in the works of his predecessors,
and these were not few. The animals also which he describes
are principally those of Greece and of the countries
with which the enterprising Greeks had frequent and commercial
intercourse. He says little of the animals of the
interior of Asia and of India, and speaks very cautiously of
such as he does mention; and one who quotes his authorities
so freely would hardly have failed to notice the sources of
his information.

The study, or at least the knowledge of the classification
of animals appears to have been carefully pursued in the
earliest period of man’s history. The oldest records that
we possess contain abundant notices of the peculiarities of
animals. The Mosaic law abounds in them, in its distinctions
between the clean and the unclean, a distinction not
then first established, but of the most remote antiquity.
Indeed it could hardly be otherwise than that men engaged
in the pursuits of agriculture and the chase should study
the habits of the animals that were valuable to them, as well
as those which were injurious. A study thus commenced
[Pg v]
by necessity, would eventually be pursued for its own sake;
and not a few would be found who would investigate, and,
as far as they could, record the various phenomena they
observed. The paintings of Egypt and the sculptures of
Assyria are our witnesses of the skill with which animals
and plants were drawn, and of the minute perception
of their external forms; and the knowledge thus gained
in the ancient centres of civilization would be sure to
circulate and increase when the intercourse with foreign
nations spread the knowledge and philosophy so acquired.

In the writings of Homer we find that the knowledge of
the anatomy of the human body had already made considerable
progress; and the inspection of the animals offered
in sacrifice cannot fail to have added much to the general
knowledge of their history. A century later, we have the
poems of Hesiod, devoted to the encouragement of agriculture
and rural pursuits. Pythagoras, in the seventh century
B.C., may perhaps have left no writings, but we know
that he was an eminent student and exponent of natural
phenomena. His contemporary, Alcmæon of Crotona, is
especially mentioned by Aristotle; and he is eminent among
natural philosophers as the first who is said to have recommended
to his followers the practice of dissection. Empedocles
of Agrigentum left a work on the phenomena of nature,
of which a few fragments still remain, and there were
also others who, if they did not enter into the details of
what we now call natural history, treated generally of the
nature of things, and opened the field to those who would
study the subject in its particular parts. The empire
of Persia was still the dominant power, and was carrying
the civilization of the East to every part of the known
world when Ctesias wrote his great works, of which, unhappily,
only a few fragments remain. He described not
[Pg vi]
only the history of his own time, but also the natural history
of Persia and of India, and that probably with more accuracy
than has been usually attributed to him. India he had
not visited personally, so that he could only describe it
from the information of others; but this implies that he
was not alone in the studies which he devoted to natural
objects. With such predecessors and aided by his own
acute observations, we need not wonder that Aristotle produced
a work which has ever been admired by naturalists,
and must continue to rise in their estimation the longer
it is in their hands.

The Index to the present volume has been formed on the
basis of that of Schneider, and considerable pains have been
taken to add as many names as possible from other sources,
especially the Index of Strack, and Külb’s recent translation
of the History of Animals, both of which contain identifications
of a great many animals. A few identifications have
also been added from Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon, as well as
from Professor Bell’s Catalogue of Animals in Captain Spratt’s
work on Lycia; and the cephalopods are named from Professor
Owen’s article on that class, in the Cyclopædia of
Anatomy. It is hoped, therefore, that the Index will be
found to contain a greater number of suggestions for the
identification of the animals mentioned by Aristotle than
have been hitherto published collectively. It is also right to
add, that it has been compiled after the translation was completed;
and, therefore, in any differences which may be found
between the identifications at the foot of the page and those
given in the Index, the reader will rather prefer the latter,
as the result of later research in works which were not accessible
when the translation was made.

Analytical Table of Contents.

Book I.—The work commences with a general review of
the animal kingdom, and several suggestions for a natural
arrangement of animals in groups, according to their
external form or their mode of life, a comparison of animals
among themselves, and a description of some of their habits.
Aristotle then introduces the human form, the best known
to man, as the standard of comparison to which he refers
the rest of the animal kingdom. The concluding chapters
of this book are occupied with a description of the several
parts of the human body, both internal and external.

Book II.—In the second book the different parts of animals
are described. The animals are arranged in various
groups, viviparous and oviparous quadrupeds, fish, serpents,
birds. The only animals described are those with
red blood: the description of the rest being reserved for the
fourth book. Their internal organs are also described; and
in the course of the book a few animals, as the ape, elephant,
and chameleon, are especially noticed.

Book III.—The third book commences with a description
of the internal organs, beginning with the generative
system. A considerable portion of the book is devoted to
the course of the veins; and Aristotle quotes from other
writers, as well as states the result of his own observations.
He then describes the nature of other constituent parts of
the body, sinews, fibres, bone, marrow, cartilage, nails,
hoofs, claws, horns, and beaks of birds, hair, scales, membranes,
flesh, fat, blood, marrow, milk, and the spermatic fluid.

Book IV.—Animals without blood, and first, the cephalopods,
[Pg viii]
are described; then the crustaceans, testacea, echinidæ,
ascidians, actiniæ, hermit crabs, insects. In the eighth
chapter the organs of sense are considered, and afterwards,
the voice, sleep, age, and differences of the sexes in animals
are described.

Book V.—In the former books animals are for the most
part described with reference to their several parts. In the
fifth book they are treated as entire, and especially with
regard to their mode of reproduction. First of all, our
author treats of spontaneous reproduction, and then of
those animals which spring from a union of the sexes; and
from this he proceeds to some detail with respect to
different groups of animals, testacea, crustacea, insects.
The book concludes with a long description of bees and
their habits.

Book VI.—In this book the same subject is continued
through the several classes of birds, fish, and quadrupeds.
This account of the reproduction of animals includes also
the consideration of the seasons, climates, and ages of
animals, and how far these influence their reproduction.

Book VII.—The seventh book is almost entirely devoted
to the consideration of the reproduction of man, and an
account of man from his birth to his death. This book
ends abruptly, and is probably imperfect.

Book VIII.—In the eighth book Aristotle passes on to
the most interesting part of his work, the character and
habits of the whole animal world, as it was known to him.
The amount of detail which he has collected and arranged
on this subject is most interesting. He treats, first of all,
of the food of animals, of their migrations, their health and
diseases, and the influence of climate upon them.

Book IX.—The subject of the eighth book is continued,
with an account of the relations in which animals stand
[Pg ix]
to each other, and especially the friendship and hostility
of different species; and these are for the most part referred
to the nature of their food, and their mode of procuring
it. The notices of fish are not so numerous as those
of other groups: this would necessarily arise from the difficulty
of observation. At the conclusion of the book, an
essay on bees and their congeners is given at considerable
length.

Book X.—This book, in all probability erroneously ascribed
to Aristotle, is occupied with a treatise on the
causes of barrenness in the human species. It appears
to be rather a continuation of the seventh book, which ends
abruptly; but it is well placed at the end, as no genuine
work of our author.

THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS.

BOOK THE FIRST.

Chapter I.

1. Some parts of animals are simple, and these can be
divided into like parts, as flesh into pieces of flesh; others are
compound, and cannot be divided into like parts, as the
hand cannot be divided into hands, nor the face into faces.
Of these some are not only called parts, but members, such as
those which, though entire in themselves, are made up of
other parts, as the head and the leg, the hand and the entire
arm, or the trunk; for these parts are both entire in themselves,
and made up of other parts.

2. All the compound parts also are made up of simple
parts, the hand, for example, of flesh, and sinew, and bone.
Some animals have all these parts the same, in others they
are different from each other. Some of the parts are the
same in form, as the nose and eye of one man is the same as
the nose and eye of another man, and flesh is the same with
flesh, and bone with bone. In like manner we may compare
the parts of the horse, and of other animals, those parts, that
is, which are the same in species, for the whole bears the same
relation to the whole as the parts do to each other. And in
animals belonging to the same class, the parts are the same,
only they differ in excess or defect. By class, I mean such as
bird or fish, for all these differ if either compared with their
own class or with another, and there are many forms of
birds and fishes.

3. Nearly all their parts differ in them according to the
opposition of their external qualities, such as colour or
shape, in that some are more, others are less affected, or
[Pg 2]
sometimes in number more or less, or in size greater and
smaller, or in any quality which can be included in excess
or defect. For some animals have a soft skin, in others the
skin is shelly; some have a long bill, as cranes, others a
short one; some have many feathers, others very few; some
also have parts which are wanting in others, for some species
have spurs, others have none; some have a crest, others have
not. But, so to say, their principal parts and those which
form the bulk of their body, are either the same, or vary
only in their opposites, and in excess and defect.

4. By excess and defect I mean the greater and the less.
But some animals agree with each other in their parts neither
in form, nor in excess and defect, but have only an analogous
likeness, such as a bone bears to a spine, a nail to a hoof,
a hand to a crab’s claw, the scale of a fish to the feather of
a bird, for that which is a feather in the birds is a scale in
the fish. With regard then to the parts which each class
of animal possesses, they agree and differ in this manner,
and also in the position of the parts. For many animals
have the same parts, but not in the same position, as the
mammæ which are either pectoral or abdominal. But of the
simple parts some are soft and moist, others hard and dry.

5. The soft parts are either entirely so, or so long as they
are in a natural condition, as blood, serum, fat, tallow, marrow,
semen, gall, milk (in those animals which give milk),
flesh, and other analogous parts of the body. In another
manner also the excretions of the body belong to this class,
as phlegm, and the excrements of the abdomen and bladder;
the hard and dry parts are sinew, skin, vein, hair, bone, cartilage,
nail, horn, for that part bears the same name, and on
the whole is called horn, and the other parts of the body
which are analogous to these.

6. Animals also differ in their manner of life, in their actions
and dispositions, and in their parts. We will first of
all speak generally of these differences, and afterwards consider
each species separately. The following are the points
in which they vary in manner of life, in their actions and
dispositions. Some animals are aquatic, others live on the
land; and the aquatic may again be divided into two classes,
for some entirely exist and procure their food in the water,
and take in and give out water, and cannot live without it;
[Pg 3]
this is the nature of most fishes. But there are others
which, though they live and feed in the water, do not take
in water but air, and produce their young out of the water.
Many of these animals are furnished with feet, as the otter
and the latax[1] and the crocodile, or with wings, as the seagull
and diver, and others are without feet, as the water-serpent.
Some procure their food from the water, and cannot live out
of the water, but neither inhale air nor water, as the acalephe[2]
and the oyster.

7. Different aquatic animals are found in the sea, in rivers,
in lakes, and in marshes, as the frog and newt, and of
marine animals some are pelagic, some littoral, and some
saxatile. Some land animals take in and give out air, and
this is called inhaling and exhaling; such are man, and all
other land animals which are furnished with lungs; some,
however, which procure their food from the earth, do not
inhale air, as the wasp, the bee, and all other insects.[3] By
insects I mean those animals which have divisions in their
bodies, whether in the lower part only, or both in the upper
and lower. Many land animals, as I have already observed,
procure their food from the water, but there are no aquatic or
marine animals which find their food on land. There are
some animals which at first inhabit the water, but afterwards
change into a different form, and live out of the water; this
happens to the gnat in the rivers, and …[4] which
afterwards becomes an œstrum.[5]

8. Again, there are some creatures which are stationary,
while others are locomotive; the fixed animals are aquatic,
but this is not the case with any of the inhabitants of the
land. Many aquatic animals also grow upon each other;
this is the case with several genera of shell-fish: the sponge
also exhibits some signs of sensation, for they say that it is
drawn up with some difficulty, unless the attempt to remove
it is made stealthily. Other animals also there are which
are alternately fixed together or free, this is the case with a
certain kind of acalephe; some of these become separated
during the night, and emigrate. Many animals are separate
from each other, but incapable of voluntary movement, as
[Pg 4]
oysters, and the animal called holothuria.[6] Some aquatic
animals are swimmers, as fish, and the mollusca,[7] and the
malacostraca, as the crabs. Others creep on the bottom, as
the crab, for this, though an aquatic animal, naturally creeps.

9. Of land animals some are furnished with wings, as birds
and bees, and these differ in other respects from each other;
others have feet, and of this class some species walk, others
crawl, and others creep in the mud. There is no animal which
has only wings as fish have only fins, for those animals whose
wings are formed by an expansion of the skin can walk,
and the bat has feet, the seal has imperfect feet. Among
birds there are some with very imperfect feet, which are
therefore called apodes; they are, however, provided with
very strong wings, and almost all birds that are similar to
this one have strong wings and imperfect feet, as the swallow
and drepanis;[8] for all this class of birds is alike both in habits
and in the structure of their wings, and their whole
appearance is very similar. The apos[9] is seen at all times
of the year, but the drepanis can only be taken in rainy
weather during the summer, and on the whole is a rare bird.

10. Many animals, however, can both walk and swim.
The following are the differences exhibited by animals in
their habits and their actions. Some of them are gregarious,
and others solitary, both in the classes which are furnished
with feet, and those which have wings, or fins. Some partake
of both characters, and of those that are gregarious, as well
as those that are solitary, some unite in societies and some
are scattered. Gregarious birds are such as the pigeon,
stork, swan, but no bird with hooked claws is gregarious.
Among swimming animals some fish are gregarious, as the
dromas,[10] tunny, pelamis,[11] amia.[12]

11. But man partakes of both qualities. Those which
have a common employment are called social, but that is
not the case with all gregarious animals. Man, and the
bee, the wasp, and the ant, and the stork belong to this
class. Some of these obey a leader, others are anarchical;
the stork and the bee are of the former class, the ant and
many others belong to the latter. Some animals, both in
[Pg 5]
the gregarious and solitary class, are limited to one locality,
others are migratory. There are also carnivorous animals,
herbivorous, omnivorous, and others which eat peculiar
food, as the bee and the spider; the former eats only honey
and a few other sweet things, while spiders prey upon flies
and there are other animals which feed entirely on fish. Some
animals hunt for their food, and some make a store, which
others do not. There are also animals which make habitations
for themselves, and others which do not. The mole,
the mouse, the ant, and the bee, make habitations, but many
kinds both of insects and quadrupeds make no dwelling.

12. With regard to situation, some are troglodite, as lizards
and serpents, others, as the horse and dog, live upon the surface
of the earth. Some kinds of animals burrow in the
ground, others do not; some animals are nocturnal, as the owl
and the bat, others use the hours of daylight. There are
tame animals and wild animals. Man and the mule are always
tame, the leopard and the wolf are invariably wild, and
others, as the elephant, are easily tamed. We may, however,
view them in another way, for all the genera that have been
tamed are found wild also, as horses, oxen, swine, sheep,
goats, and dogs.

13. Some animals utter a loud cry, some are silent, and
others have a voice, which in some cases may be expressed
by a word, in others it cannot. There are also noisy
animals and silent animals, musical and unmusical kinds,
but they are mostly noisy about the breeding season. Some,
as the dove, frequent fields, others, as the hoopoe, live
on the mountains; some attach themselves to man, as the
pigeon. Some are lascivious, as the partridge and domestic
fowl, and others are chaste, as the raven, which rarely
cohabits.

14. Again, there are classes of animals furnished with
weapons of offence, others with weapons of defence; in the
former I include those which are capable of inflicting an injury,
or of defending themselves when they are attacked; in
the latter those which are provided with some natural protection
against injury.

15. Animals also exhibit many differences of disposition.
Some are gentle, peaceful, and not violent, as the ox. Some
are violent, passionate, and intractable, as the wild boar. Some
[Pg 6]
are prudent and fearful, as the stag and the hare. Serpents
are illiberal and crafty. Others, as the lion, are liberal,
noble, and generous. Others are brave, wild, and crafty,
like the wolf. For there is this difference between the
generous and the brave—the former means that which comes
of a noble race, the latter that which does not easily depart
from its own nature.

16. Some animals are cunning and evil-disposed, as the
fox; others, as the dog, are fierce, friendly, and fawning.
Some are gentle and easily tamed, as the elephant; some are
susceptible of shame, and watchful, as the goose. Some
are jealous, and fond of ornament, as the peacock. But man
is the only animal capable of reasoning, though many
others possess the faculty of memory and instruction in
common with him. No other animal but man has the power
of recollection. In another place we will treat more accurately
of the disposition and manner of life in each class.

Chapter II.

1. All animals possess in common those parts by which they
take in food, and into which they receive it. But these
parts agree or differ in the same way as all the other parts
of bodies, that is, either in shape or size, or proportion or
position; and besides these, almost all animals possess many
other parts in common, such as those by which they reject
their excrements, (and the part by which they take their
food,)[13] though this does not exist in all. The part by which
the food is taken in is called the mouth, that which receives
the food from the mouth is called the stomach. The part
by which they reject the excrement has many names.

2. The excrement being of two kinds, the animals which
possess receptacles for the fluid excrement have also receptacles
for the dry; but those which have the latter are not
always furnished with the former. Wherefore all animals
which have a bladder have a belly also, but not all that have
a belly have a bladder; for the part appropriated to the
reception of the liquid excrement is called the bladder, and
that for the reception of the dry is called the belly.

3. Many animals possess both these parts, and that also
by which the semen is emitted. Among animals that have
the power of generation, some emit the semen into themselves,
[Pg 7]
and some inject it into others. The former are
called female, the latter male. In some animals there is
neither male nor female, and there is a diversity in the form
of the parts appropriated to this office. For some animals
have a uterus, others have only something analogous to the
uterus. These are the most essential organs; some of
which exist in all animals, others in the majority only.

Chapter III.

1. There is only one sense, that of touch, which is common
to all animals; so that no exact name can be given to the
part in which this sense resides, for in some animals it is
the same, in others only analogous.

2. Every living creature is furnished with moisture, and
must die, if deprived of this moisture either in the course
of nature or by force. But in what part of the body this
moisture resides is another question. In some animals it is
found in the blood and veins, in others the situation is only
analogous, but these are imperfect, as fibres and serum.[14] The
sense of touch resides in the simple parts, as in the flesh and
in similar places, and generally in those parts which contain
blood, at least in those animals which have blood; in others
it resides in the analogous parts, but in all animals in the
simple parts.

3. The capacity of action resides in the compound parts,
as the preparation of food in the mouth, and the power of
locomotion in the feet or wings, or the analogous parts.
Again, some animals are sanguineous, as man, the horse, and
all perfect animals, whether apodous, bipeds, or quadrupeds;
and some animals are without blood, as the bee and the
wasp, and such marine animals as the sepia and the carabus,[15]
and all animals with more than four legs.

Chapter IV.

1. There are also viviparous, oviparous, and vermiparous
animals. The viviparous, are such as man, and the horse, the
seal, and others which have hair, and among marine animals
the cetacea, as the dolphin and those which are called selache.[16]
[Pg 8]
Some of these are furnished with a blow-hole, but have no
gills, as the dolphin and the whale. The dolphin has its
blow-hole on the back, the whale in its forehead; others
have open gills, as the selache, the galeus,[17] and the batus.[18]
That is called the egg of the perfect fœtus, from which the
future animal is produced, from a part at first, while the
remainder serves for its food. The worm is that from the
whole of which the future animal is produced, and the
fœtus afterwards acquires parts and increases in size.

2. Some viviparous animals are internally oviparous, as
the selache; others are internally viviparous, as mankind
and the horse. In different animals the fœtus assumes a
different form, when first brought into the world, and is
either a living creature, an egg, or a worm. The eggs of
some animals, as birds, are hard-shelled, and are of two
colours. Those of the selache and some other animals are
soft-skinned, and have only one colour. Some species of the
vermiform fœtus are capable of motion, others are not. But
in another place, when we treat of generation, we will dwell
more accurately on these subjects.

Chapter V.

1. Some animals have feet, others have none; of the former
some have two feet, as mankind and birds only; others
have four, as the lizard and the dog; others, as the scolopendra
and bee, have many feet; but all have their feet in pairs.

2. And among apodous swimming animals some have
fins, as fish; and of these some have two fins in the upper
and two in the lower part of their bodies, as the chrysophys[19]
and labrax;[20] others, which are very long and smooth,
have only two fins, as the eel and conger; others have none
at all, as the lamprey and others, which live in the sea as
serpents do on land, and in like manner swim in moist places;
and some of the genus selache, as those which are flat and
have tails, as the batos and trygon, have no fins; these fish
swim by means of their flat surfaces; but the batrachus[21] has
fins, and so have all those fish which are not very thin in proportion
to their width.

3. But the animals which have apparent feet, as the cephalopods,
[Pg 9]
swim both with their feet and fins, and move quickly
upon the hollow parts of their bodies, as the sepia, teuthis,
and polypus: but none of them can walk except the polypus.
Those animals which have hard skins, as the carabus, swim
with their hinder parts, and move very quickly upon their
tail, with the fins which are upon it, and the newt both with
its feet and tail, and (to compare small things with great) it
has a tail like the glanis.[22]

4. Some winged animals, as the eagle and the hawk, are
feathered; others, as the cockchafer and the bee, membranaceous
wings; and others, as the alopex[23] and the bat,
have wings formed of skin. Both the feathered and leather-winged
tribes have blood; but the insects, which have naked
wings, have no blood. Again, the feathered and leather-winged
animals are all either bipeds or apodous, for they say
that there are winged serpents in Ethiopia.[24]

5. The feathered tribe of animals is called birds; the other
two tribes have no exact names. Among winged creatures
without blood some are coleopterous, for they have elytra
over their wings, as the cockchafer and the beetles, and others
are without elytra. The animals of this class have either
two or four wings. Those with four wings are distinguished
by their greater size or a caudal sting. The diptera
are either such as are small, or have a sting in their head.
The coleoptera have no sting at all; the diptera have a sting
in their head, as the fly, horse-fly, gad-fly, and gnat.

6. All bloodless animals, except a few marine species of
the cephalopoda, are smaller than those which have blood.
These animals are the largest in warm waters, and more so
in the sea than on the land, and in fresh water. All creatures
that are capable of motion are moved by four or more limbs.
Those with blood have four limbs only, as man has two
hands and two feet. Birds have two wings and two feet;
quadrupeds and fishes have four feet or four fins. But those
animals which have two wings or none at all, as the serpent,
are nevertheless moved by four limbs; for the bendings of
their body are four in number, or two when they have two
wings.

[Pg 10]

7. Those bloodless animals which have more than four
feet, whether furnished with feet or wings, always have more
than four organs of locomotion, as the ephemera, which has
four feet and four wings; and in this it not only agrees with
its peculiar manner of life, from which also it derives
its name, but also that it is winged and four-footed; and
all creatures, whether they have four feet or many feet,
move in the same direction, for they all move in the long
way of their bodies. All other animals have two leading
feet, the crab alone has four.

Chapter VI.

1. The following are the principal classes which include other
animals—birds, fishes, cetacea. All these have red blood.
There is another class of animals covered with a shell, and
called shell fish, and an anonymous class of soft-shelled
animals (malacostraca), which includes carabi, carcini, and
astaci; and another of mollusca, such as teuthis, teuthos, and
sepia; and another class of annulose animals. All these are
without blood, and the species with feet have many feet.
There are no large classes of other animals; for there are
many forms which are not included under a single form, but
either stand alone, having no specific difference, as man, or
have specific differences, but the classes are anonymous.

2. All animals with four feet and no wings have blood.
Some of these are viviparous, others oviparous. The viviparous
are not all covered with hair, but the oviparous have
scales. The scale of a reptile is similar in situation to the
scale of a fish. The class of serpents, sanguineous land animals,
is naturally without feet. Though some have feet, this
class is also covered with scales. All serpents, except the
viper, are oviparous. The viper alone is viviparous, so that
not all viviparous animals have hair; for some fishes also are
viviparous. All animals, however, that have hair are viviparous;
for we may consider the prickles of the hedgehog
and porcupine as analogous to the hair of animals; for they
answer the purpose of hair, and not, as in marine animals
that are so covered, of feet.[25]

3. There are also many classes of viviparous quadrupeds,
[Pg 11]
but they have never received names. Each kind must,
therefore, be taken separately, as man, as we speak of lion,
stag, horse, dog, and of others in like manner. There is,
however, one class of those that have a mane called lophuri,[26]
as the horse, ass, mule, ginnus,[27] hinnus, and those which in
Syria are called mules,[28] from their resemblance, though not
quite of the same form. They copulate and produce young
from each other, so that it is necessary to consider well the
nature of each of them separately.

4. We have now treated of these things in an outline, for
the sake of giving a taste of what we are afterwards to
consider, and of how many. Hereafter we will speak of them
more accurately, in order that we may first of all examine
into their points of difference and agreement; and afterwards
we will endeavour to inquire into the causes of
these things, but it will be a more natural arrangement to
do so when we treat of the history of each. For it is evident
from these things what they are, and what we have to demonstrate.

5. Our first subject of consideration must be the parts of
which animals are made up, for these constitute the chief
and the whole difference among them; either because they
have them or are without them, or these parts vary in position
or arrangement, or in any of the differences mentioned
before, in form, size, proportion, and difference of accidents.
First of all, then, we will consider the parts of the human
body; for, as every one can best understand the standard of
money with which he is most familiar, so it is in other things.
And of necessity, man must be the best known to us of all
animals. The parts of the body are, indeed, plain enough to
every one’s common sense; but, that we may not forsake our
arrangement, and may have reason as well as perception, we
will speak, first of all, of the organic, and afterwards of the
simple, parts.

Chapter VII.

1. These are the principal parts into which the whole body is
divided. The head, neck, trunk, two arms, and two legs.
[Pg 12]
The whole cavity, from the neck to the pudenda, is called
the trunk. That part of the head which is covered with
hair is called the cranium, the fore part of this is called the
sinciput. This is the last formed, being the last bone in
the body which becomes hard; the hinder part is the occiput,
and between the occiput and sinciput is the crown of
the head. The brain is placed beneath the sinciput, and the
occiput is empty;[29] the cranium is a thin spherical bone covered
with a skin without flesh. The skull has sutures: in women
there is but one placed in a circle; men have generally three
joined in one, and a man’s skull has been seen without any
sutures at all. The middle and smooth part of the hair is
called the crown of the head; in some persons this is double,
for there are some people double-crowned, not from any formation
of the bone, but only from the division of the hair.

Chapter VIII.

1. The part immediately beneath the cranium is called the
face in mankind alone, for we do not speak of the face of a fish
or of an ox; the part immediately beneath the sinciput and
between the eyes is called the forehead. Those in whom
this feature is large are tardy; those who have a small forehead
are easily excited; a broad forehead belongs to those
who are liable to be carried away by their feelings; a round
forehead is a sign of a passionate disposition.

2. Under the forehead are two eyebrows; if they are
straight, it is a mark of a gentle disposition; the eyebrows
bent down to the nose are an evidence of an austere temper;
if they incline towards the temples, of a mocker and
scoffer; if they are drawn down, it is a sign of an envious
person. Beneath these are the eyes, which by nature are two
in number: the parts of each eye are, first, the upper and under
eyelid, the edges of which are furnished with hair. Within
the eye, the moist part with which we see is called the pupil;
round this is the iris, and this is surrounded by the white.
Two corners of the eye are formed at the junction of the eyelids,
one in the direction of the nose, the other towards the
temple. If these corners are large, they are a sign of an evil
disposition; if those near the nose are fleshy, and have a
swollen appearance, they are an evidence of wickedness.

[Pg 13]

3. All other classes of animals have eyes, except shell-fish,
and some other imperfect creatures, and all viviparous
animals except moles have eyes. A person might, however,
conclude from the following observation, that it has eyes,
though it is quite without them, for it certainly does not
see at all, nor has it any external eyes; but, when the skin is
taken off, there is a place for the eyes, and the iris of the
eye is in the place which it would naturally occupy on the
outside, as if they had been wounded in their birth, and the
skin had grown over the place.

4. The white of the eye is generally the same in all animals,
but the iris is very different. In some it is black, in others
decidedly grey, in others dark grey, and in some it is the
colour of the goat’s eye, and this is a sign of the best disposition,
and is most to be prized for acuteness of vision.
Man is almost the only animal which exhibits a variety of
colouring in the eye; there are, however, some horses with
grey eyes.

5. The eyes of some persons are large, others small, and
others of a moderate size—the last-mentioned are the best.
And some eyes are projecting, some deep-set, and some moderate,
and those which are deep-set have the most acute
vision in all animals; the middle position is a sign of the
best disposition. Some people have an eye which is perpetually
opening and closing, others have an eye always intent,
and others a moderately-intent eye: this last is the best disposed;
of the others, the one is impudent, and the other a
sign of infirmity.

Chapter IX.

1. The part of the head by which we hear, but do not breathe,
is the ear; for Alcmæon is mistaken when he says that
goats breathe through their ears. One part of the ear has not
received any name, the other part is called the lobe. The
whole ear is made up of cartilage and flesh. Internally,
the ear has the nature of a shell, and the last bone is similar
to the ear itself. The sound reaches this part last, as
it were in a chamber. There is no passage from the ear into
the brain, but there is to the roof of the mouth; and a vein
extends from the brain to each ear.[30] The eyes also are connected
with the brain, and each eye is placed upon a vein.

[Pg 14]

2. Man is the only animal with ears that cannot move them.
Among animals which have the faculty of hearing; some have
ears, and others, as winged and scaly creatures, have no ear,
but an open orifice in the head; all viviparous animals, except
the seal, and the dolphin, and other cetacea, have ears; the
selache also are viviparous. The seal has open orifices by
which it hears; the dolphin can hear, though it has no ears;
all other animals can move their ears, but man alone does
not move them.

3. The ears (of man) lie in the same circle with his eyes,
and not above them, as in some quadrupeds. The ears are
either smooth, hairy, or moderate. These last are the best
for hearing, but they do not in any way indicate the disposition.
They are large, or small or middling, or they are
erect, or not at all, or only moderately erect. The moderately
erect are a sign of the best disposition; large and erect ears
are an evidence of foolish talking and loquacity. The part
of the head between the eye and the ear is called the temple.

4. In the middle of the face is the nose, the passage for the
breath, for through this animals inhale and exhale, and
through it also they sneeze; this is the expulsion of a concentrated
breath, and is the only kind of breathing which is
esteemed ominous or sacred: moreover, inhaling and exhaling
is into the chest, and without the nostrils it is impossible
to inhale or exhale, for inhaling and exhaling is from the
breast by the windpipe, and not from any part of the head.
But it is possible to live without this respiration through the
nostrils. The smell also resides in this part; this is the sense
of odour. The nostril is very moveable, and not naturally
immoveable like the ear.

5. One part of the nose, namely, the division between the
nostrils, is cartilaginous, but the passage is empty, for the
nose is formed of two divisions. In the elephant, the nostril
is very large and strong, and it answers to the purpose of a
hand, for the animal can extend it, and with it take its food,
and convey it to its mouth, whether the food is moist or dry.
This is the only animal that can do so.

6. There are also two jaws, the upper and the under. All
animals move the lower jaw, except the river-crocodile, and
this moves the upper jaw only. Below the nose are two lips,
the flesh of which is very moveable. The mouth is the
[Pg 15]
centre of the jaws and the lips. The upper part is called
the roof of the mouth, the lower, the pharynx. The tongue
is the organ of taste. This sense resides in the tip, and, if
food is placed on the broad part of the tongue, the taste is
less acute. The tongue partakes of all the other sensations,
as harshness, heat, and cold, as well as that of taste, in common
with the rest of the flesh.

7. The flat part of the tongue is either narrow or moderate
in size, the moderate is the best, and most apt for clear elocution.
The tongue may be either too loose, or tied down, as in
stammerers and inarticulate speakers. The flesh of the
tongue is porous and spongy. The epiglottis is a portion
of the tongue, the double part of the mouth is the tonsils;
that in many divisions the gums, they are fleshy, and in
them are fixed the bony teeth. Within the mouth there is
another part, the uvula, a pillar filled with blood. If this part
is swelled with relaxation, it is called a grape, and chokes.

Chapter X.

1. The neck is the part between the head and the trunk; the
front part is called the larynx, behind this is the œsophagus.
The voice and the breath pass through the front part, the
trachea, which is cartilaginous, but the œsophagus is fleshy,
and placed farther in, near the vertebra of the neck. The
back of the neck is called the epomis. These are the parts
as far as the thorax. The parts of the thorax are some before
and some behind. First of all, below the neck is the
breast with two mammæ; on these are two nipples, through
which the milk of the female passes. The mamma is porous.
There is also milk in the breasts of men. The flesh of the
mamma in men is thick, in women it is spongy and full of pores.

2. The part below the thorax, in front, is the belly, and of
this the navel is the centre. Beneath this centre, the part on
each side is called the iliac region; the part in the centre, beneath
the navel, is called the hypogastric region; the lowest
part of this is called pubes; above the navel is the epigastric
region; the lumbar region is situated between the epigastric
and iliac regions.

3. Of the hinder parts the loin forms the division of the
body, whence also its name is derived (ὀσφύς quasi ἰσοφύς).
The part of the central region which is like a seat is the buttock;
[Pg 16]
that on which the thigh turns, the cotyledon. The
peculiar part of women is the uterus; of men the penis, it
is external, at the extremity of the trunk in two parts; the
upper part is fleshy and smooth, and is called glans; this is
covered with an anonymous skin, which, if it is cut asunder,
does not unite again, neither does the cheek nor the eyelid.

4. Common to this and the glans is the prepuce, the remaining
part is cartilaginous, readily increases in size, and
it is drawn in and out, contrary to that of the class of animals
called lophuri. Beneath the penis are two testicles,
surrounded by a skin called the scrotum; the testicles are
not of the same nature as flesh, nor are they made of flesh.
In another place we shall treat of the nature of all these
parts more accurately.

5. The pudendum muliebre is contrary to that of the
male, for it is hollow under the pubes, not projecting like
that of the male, and the urethra is outside the womb, for the
passage of the semen of the male, and for the fluid excrement
of both. The part of the body which joins the neck and
the breast is called the jugulum; that which unites the side,
the arm, and the shoulder is the arm-pit. The region
between the thigh and the hypogastric region is called the
groin; the part common to the thigh and the buttock on the
inside is the perineum, that of the thigh and buttock on the
outside is called hypoglutis.

6. We have previously treated of the trunk. The hinder
part of the breast is called the back: the parts of the back
are two shoulder blades and the back-bone; below the thorax,
and opposite the stomach, are the loins; the ribs belong
both to the back and the front of the trunk, and are eight
on each side, for we have never heard anything worthy of
credit concerning the Ligyes, who are said to have seven ribs.

Chapter XI.

1. Man has upper and lower side, the front and the back, and
right and left side. The right and the left are nearly alike in
their parts and in every particular, except that the left side
is the weaker; but the back parts are not like the front;
nor the lower parts to the upper, except in this particular,
that the parts below the hypogastric region are full-fleshed
or lean in proportion to the face, and the arms also answer
[Pg 17]
to the proportion of the legs. Those persons who have a
short humerus have also generally a short thigh: those who
have small feet have also small hands.

2. One of the double parts of the body is the arm. The parts
of the arm are the shoulder, humerus, elbow, cubitus, and the
hand; the parts of the hand are the palm and five fingers; the
jointed part of the finger is the condyle, the unjointed part
the phalanx. The thumb has but one joint, all the rest have
two. The bending of the arm and finger is always inwards.
The arm is also bent at the elbow: the inner part of
the hand is called the palm; it is fleshy, and divided
by strong lines. Long-lived persons have one or two lines
which extend through the whole hand; short-lived persons
have two lines not extending through the whole hand. The
joint of the hand and arm is the wrist. The outside of the
hand is sinewy, and has not received any name.

3. The other double part of the body is the leg. The
double-headed part of the leg is called the thigh, the moveable
part is called the patella, that which has two bones
the tibia; the front of this part is the shin, the hind part
the calf of the leg. The flesh is full of sinews and veins; in
those persons who have large hips, the flesh is drawn upwards
towards the hollow part under the knee, in those who
have not it is drawn down. The lowest part of the shin is
the ankle, and this is double in each leg. The part of the
leg with many bones is called the foot, the hind part of which
is the heel. The front part is divided into five toes; the
under part, which is fleshy, is called the sole of the foot;
the upper part, (the instep,) is sinewy, and has not received
any name. One part of the toe is the nail, the other
is the joint; the nail is on the extremity of the toe, and the
toes are bent inwards. Those who have the sole of the foot
thick, and not hollow, but walk upon the whole of the foot,
are knavish. The common joint of the thigh and the leg is
the knee.

Chapter XII.

1. These parts are possessed in common by the male and female;
the position of the external parts, whether above or below,
before or behind, on the right side or the left, will appear
on mere inspection. It is necessary, however, to enumerate
[Pg 18]
them, for the reasons which I have mentioned before, that
its proper place being assigned to each part, any difference in
their arrangement in man and other animals may be less
likely to escape our notice.

2. In man, the parts of the body are more naturally divided
into upper and lower than in any other animal, for all
the upper and lower parts of his body are arranged according
to the order of nature above and below; in the same
way, also, the fore and hind parts, and those on the right
and left, are placed naturally. But in other animals some
of these parts are either not at all so placed, or they are
much more confused than in man. The head is placed above
the body in all animals, but in man alone, as we have said, is
this part corresponding to the order of all things.

3. Next to the head is the neck, then the breast and the
back, the one before and the other behind; and each of them
in the following order:—the stomach, loins, pudenda,
haunch, then the thigh and leg, and, last of all, the foot.
The legs have the joint bent forwards, in which direction
also is their manner of walking, and the more moveable part
of the legs as well as the joint is bent forward: the heel is behind.
Each of the ankles is like an ear. From the right and
left side come arms, having the joint bent inwards, so that
the flexures both of the legs and arms are towards each other,
especially in man.

4. The senses and the organs of sense, the eyes, nostril,
and tongue are in the same position, and in the anterior part
of the body; but the hearing, and its organ, and the ears are
at the side, and upon the same circumference as the eyes.
Man has the eyes closer together, in proportion to his size,
than other animals. The sense of touch is the most accurate
of the human senses, and next to this the taste. In the rest
of his senses he is far surpassed by other animals.

Chapter XIII.

1. The external parts of the body are arranged in this
manner; and, as I have said, are for the most part named and
known from habit. But the internal parts are not so well
known, and those of the human body are the least known.
So that in order to explain them we must compare them with
the same parts of those animals which are most nearly allied.

[Pg 19]

2. First of all, the brain is placed in the fore-part of the
head, and it occupies the same position in all animals that
have this part, which belongs to all sanguineous and cephalopodous
animals. In proportion to his size, man has the
largest brain of all animals, and the moistest. Two membranes
enclose the brain: that outside the skull is the strongest;
the inner membrane is slighter than the outer one. In
all animals the brain is in two portions. The cerebellum is
placed upon the brain at its lowest extremity. It is different
from the brain both to the touch and in appearance.

3. The back of the head is empty and hollow in all animals
in proportion to their size, for some have a large head,
but the part lying under the face is less in those animals
which have round faces; others have a small head and large
jaws, as the whole tribe of Lophuri. In all animals the brain
is without blood, nor does it contain any veins, and it is
naturally cold to the touch. The greater number of animals
have a small cavity in the centre of the brain. And round
this a membrane filled with veins: this membrane is like
skin, and encloses the brain. Above the brain is the smoothest
and weakest bone in the head—it is called sinciput.

4. Three passages lead from the eye to the brain; the
largest and the middle-sized to the cerebellum, the least to
the brain itself. The least is that which is nearest the nostril;
the greater are parallel, and do not meet; but the middle-sized
passages meet: this is most evident in fishes, and
these passages are nearer to the brain than the larger, but
the least separate from each other, and do not meet.

5. Within the neck is the œsophagus, which also derives
its additional name, the isthmus, from its length and
narrowness, and the trachea. The trachea lies in front of
the œsophagus in all animals which possess this part, that is,
all animals which breathe from the lungs. The trachea is
cartilaginous in its nature, and contains but little blood: it
is surrounded with many smooth rings of cartilage, and it
lies upon the upper part towards the mouth, opposite the passage
from the nostril to the mouth, wherefore, also, if any
liquid is drawn into it in drinking, it passes out of the mouth
through the nostrils.

6. Between the passages is the epiglottis, which can be
folded over the passage which extends from the trachea to the
[Pg 20]
mouth; by the epiglottis the passage of the tongue is closed,
at the other extremity the trachea reaches to the middle
of the lungs, and afterwards divides to each side of the lungs.
For the lung is double in all animals which possess this
part, though the division is not so marked in viviparous animals,
and least of all in man. The human lungs are anomalous,
neither being divided into many lobes, as in other
animals, nor being smooth.

7. In oviparous animals, such as birds and the oviparous
quadrupeds, the parts are very widely separated, so that
they appear to have two lungs; they are, however, only two
divisions of the trachea extending to each side of the lungs;
the trachea is also united with the great vein and with the
part called the aorta. When the trachea is filled with air,
it distributes the breath into the cavities of the lungs, which
have cartilaginous interstices ending in a point; the passages
of these interstices go through the whole lungs, always dividing
from greater into less.

8. The heart is connected with the trachea by fatty and cartilaginous
muscular bands. There is a cavity near the junction,
and in some animals, when the trachea is filled with breath,
this cavity is not always distinguishable, but in larger animals
it is evident that the breath enters it. This then is the
form of the trachea, which only inhales and exhales breath,
and nothing else either dry or moist, or it suffers pain till that
which has passed down is coughed up.

9. The œsophagus is joined to the mouth from above, near
the trachea, being united both to the spine and the trachea
by membranaceous ligaments. It passes through the diaphragm
into the cavity of the stomach, is fleshy in its nature,
and is extensible both in length and breadth. The human
stomach is like that of a dog, not a great deal larger than the
entrail, but like a wide bowel; after this there is an entrail
simply rolled together, then an entrail of moderate width.
The lower part of the abdomen is like that of a hog, for it is
wide, and from this to the seat it is short and thick.

10. The omentum is united to the abdomen in the middle,
and is in its nature a fatty membrane, as in other animals
with a single stomach and teeth in both jaws. The mesenterium
is over the bowels; it is membranaceous, broad, and fat;
it is united to the great vein and the aorta: through it extend
[Pg 21]
many numerous veins at its junction with the intestines,
reaching from above downwards. This is the nature of the
œsophagus, trachea, and the parts of the abdominal cavity.

Chapter XIV.

1. The heart has three cavities: it lies above the lungs, near
the division of the trachea. It has a fat and thick membrane,
by which it is united to the great vein and the aorta, and it
lies upon the aorta near the apex; and the apex is placed in
the same situation in all animals which have a chest; and in
all animals, whether they have or have not a chest, the apex
of the heart is forwards, though it often escapes notice by
the change of position in the parts when dissected. The
gibbous portion of the heart is upwards; its apex is generally
fleshy and thick, and there is a sinew in the cavities.

2. In all other animals which have a chest the heart is placed
in the centre; in man it is rather on the left side, inclining
a little from the division of the mammæ towards the left
breast in the upper part of the chest; it is not large; its
whole form is not long, but rather round, except that the
extremity ends in a point. It has three cavities, as I have
said. The greatest is that on the right, the least on the
left, the middle one is of intermediate size. They are all
perforated towards the lungs. It has both the two smaller,
and all of them perforated towards the lungs, and this is
evident in one of the cavities downwards from its point of
attachment.

3. Near the principal cavity it is attached to the great
vein to which also the mesenterium is united, and in the
middle it is attached to the aorta. Passages lead from
the lungs to the heart, and they are divided in the same
way as the trachea, following the passages from the trachea
throughout the whole lungs, and the passages leading from
the heart are on the upper part. There is no passage which
is common to them both, but by their union they receive the
breath and transmit it through the heart; for one of the
passages leads to the right cavity, and the other to the left.
We will hereafter speak of the great vein and the aorta in
the portion of our work which treats of these parts.

4. In all animals which have lungs and are viviparous, either
internally or externally, the lung has more blood than all the
[Pg 22]
other parts; for the whole lung is spongy, and through each
perforation branches of the great vein proceed. Those persons
are deceived who say that the lungs are empty, drawing
their conclusion from dissected animals, from which all the
blood has escaped. Of all the viscera the heart alone contains
blood, and in the lungs the blood is not in the lungs
themselves, but in the veins by which they are perforated.
But in the heart itself the blood is in each of the cavities,
but the thinnest blood is in the middle cavity.

5. Beneath the lungs is that division of the trunk which
is called the diaphragm. It is united to the ribs, the hypochondriac
region, and the spine. In the centre is a smooth
membranous part, and there are veins extending through it.
The human veins are thick in proportion to the size of the
body. Under the diaphragm, on the right side is the liver,
on the left the spleen, alike in all animals which are furnished
with these parts in their natural form and without
monstrosity, for already there has been observed an altered
order in some quadrupeds. They are joined to the abdomen
near the omentum.

6. The appearance of the human spleen is narrow and long,
like that of the hog. Generally speaking, and in most animals,
the liver is not furnished with a gall, though this is
found in some animals. The human liver is round, like that
of the ox. This is the case also in animals offered for sacrifice,
as in the district of Chalcis, in Eubœa, where the sheep
have no gall, and in Naxos it is so large in nearly all the animals,
that strangers who come to sacrifice are surprised, and
think that it is ominous, and not at all natural. The liver is
united with the great vein, but has no part in common with
the aorta. For a vein branches off from the great vein through
the liver, at the place where the gates of the liver, as they
are called, are situated. The spleen also is only connected with
the great vein, for a vein extends from this to the spleen.

7. Next to these are the kidneys, which lie close to
the spine. In their nature they are like the kidneys of
oxen. In all animals that have kidneys the right kidney
lies higher than the left, and is covered with less fat, and is
more dry than the left. This is the same in all animals.
Passages lead from them to the great vein and to the aorta,
but not to the cavity; for all animals, except the seal, have
[Pg 23]
a cavity in their kidneys, though it is greater in some than
in others. The human kidneys; though similar to those of
oxen, are more solid than in other animals, and the passages
that lead to them end in the body of the kidney; and this is
a proof that they do not pass through them, that they contain
no blood in the living animal, nor is it coagulated in
them when dead; but they have a small cavity, as I said
before. From the cavity of the kidneys two strong passages
lead to the bladder, and two others, strong and continuous,
lead to the aorta.

8. A hollow, sinewy vein is attached to the middle of each
kidney, which extends from the spine through small branches,
and disappears towards the hip, though it afterwards appears
again upon the hip. The branches of these veins reach
to the bladder; for the bladder is placed lowest of all, being
united to the passages which proceed from the kidneys by
the neck which reaches to the urethra; and nearly all round
its circumference it is united by smooth and muscular membranes,
very similar in form to those upon the diaphragm of
the chest.

9. The human bladder is moderately large in size, and the
pudendum is united to the neck of the bladder, having a strong
passage above and a small one below. One of these passages
leads to the testicles; the other, which is sinewy and
cartilaginous, to the bladder. From this are appended the
testicles of the male, concerning which we will treat in the
part devoted to their consideration. These parts are the same
in the female, who differs in none of the internal parts except
the womb, the appearance of which may be learned from
the drawings in the books on anatomy. Its position is upon
the entrails. The bladder is above the uterus. In a future
book we will speak of the nature of the uterus generally;
for it is not alike, nor has it the same nature in them all.

These are the internal and external parts of the human
body, and this is their nature and their manner.

BOOK THE SECOND.

Chapter I.

1. Of the parts of other animals some are common to them
all, as I have said before, and some belong to particular
classes, and they agree and differ in the manner often before
mentioned. For almost all animals which differ in kind,
have also their parts different in form, and there are some
which have only a proportionate resemblance, but differ in
kind, and others agree in kind, but not in form, and many
parts belong to some which others have not. Viviparous
quadrupeds have a head and neck, and all the parts of the
head, but they differ from each other in their forms. The
lion has one bone in the neck, but has no vertebræ, and
when laid open its internal parts are like those of a dog.

2. Viviparous quadrupeds have fore-legs instead of arms,
and in all quadrupeds, especially those which have the fore-feet
much divided, they are analogous to hands, for they
use them as hands, and the left legs are less at liberty than
in men, except in the elephant, and this animal has the toes
less perfectly jointed, and its fore-legs much larger than the
hind ones; it has five toes, and short ankles to its hind legs.
It has a trunk of such a nature and length as to be able to
use it for a hand, and it drinks and eats by stretching this
into its mouth; this also it lifts up to its driver, and pulls
up trees with it; with this organ it breathes as it walks
through the water. The extremity of the proboscis is curved,
but without joints, for it is cartilaginous.

3. Man is the only ambidextrous animal. All animals have
their chest analogous to man, but not similar to his, for he
has a wide chest, and theirs is narrow: no animal but man
has pectoral mammæ; the elephant has two mammæ, but not
on the breast, though they are in that direction.

4. All animals, excepting the elephant, bend both their
fore and hind legs in contrary directions, and also contrary
to the way in which a man’s limbs are bent. For in viviparous
quadrupeds, except the elephant, the joints of the
[Pg 25]
fore-legs are bent forwards, and those of the hind-legs backwards,
and they have the hollow part of their circumference
opposite to each other: the elephant is not constructed as
some have said, but is able to sit down, and bend his legs,
but, from his great weight, is unable to bend them on both
sides at once, but leans either to the right side or the left, and
sleeps in this position, but its hind legs are bent like a man’s.

5. In oviparous quadrupeds, as the crocodile, lizard, and
such like, both the fore and hind legs are bent forwards,
inclining a little to the side, and likewise also in other animals
with more than four feet, except that the middle joint
of their last pair of legs is always doubtful, and is rather
bent towards the side. And man also has both the flexures
of his limbs in the same direction, and those of his arms
and legs contrary to each other, for he bends the arm backwards,
except that the external part of the arm is a little
inclined inwards, towards the side; the legs bend forwards.

6. No animal bends the joints both of its fore and hind
legs backwards. The flexure of the cubitus and fore-leg is
in a contrary direction to the flexure of the shoulder in all
animals, and the flexure of the knee is contrary to that of the
hip; so that since man bends his joints in the contrary direction
to many animals, those which have such joints as man’s
also bend them in a contrary direction to many animals. Birds
bend their limbs in a direction similar to that of quadrupeds,
for being bipeds, they bend their legs backwards, and have
wings instead of arms, or fore-legs, and these bend forwards.

7. The seal is like a maimed quadruped, for immediately
beneath the scapula it has feet like hands, as are also
those of the bear, for they are five-fingered, and each of the
fingers has three joints, and a small claw: the hind feet are
five-fingered, and each of the fingers has joints and claws like
those upon the fore-feet; in shape they are very like the tail
of a fish.

8. The movements of animals, whether they have four
feet or more, are in the direction of the longer diameter of
their bodies, and thus also they stand, the commencement
of motion is always on the right side of their bodies. The
lion and the camel, both the Arabian and Bactrian, walk with
the hind-foot following the fore-foot on the same side, and
this means that the right foot is not put before the left, but
follows it.

[Pg 26]

Chapter II.

1. Whatever parts a man has before, a quadruped has beneath:
those that are behind in man, form the quadruped’s
back; most animals have a tail, the seal has a small one, like
that of a stag; hereafter we shall speak of apelike animals.
All viviparous quadrupeds are, so to say, rough, with hair,
and not like man, who, except on his head, has not much hair
on his body, and what there is, is very fine; but his head is
more massy than that of other animals.

2. And all creatures that have their upper part rough
with hair, are quite smooth, or only slightly rough beneath;
but man is contrary to this: and again, each eyelid in man
is furnished, with lashes, and he has hair on the cheek, and
pubes; other animals are not so furnished, having no hair
on the lower eyelid, or only a few hairs under the eyelid.

3. But some hairy quadrupeds are rough all over, as the
hog, the bear, and the dog; the neck of others is the roughest
part, as in those which have a mane, like the lion; in others
which have a mane, the back of the neck from the head to
the point of the shoulder is hairy, as the horse and the mule,
and among wild animals with horns, the bonassus. The
hipellaphus,[31] as it is called, has a mane upon the point of
its shoulder, and so has the pardium,[32] though both these
have a thin mane from the head to the shoulder, and the
hipellaphus has a beard upon its larynx.

4. Both of these are horned, and have a cloven hoof: the
female hipellaphus has no horns, it is about the size of a
stag; there are hipellaphi in the country of the Arachotæ,
where also are buffaloes. The wild differ as much from domesticated
oxen, as wild hogs from tame ones; for they
are black, and of great strength; their nose is curved like
an eagle’s beak, and their horns lie backwards; the horns of
the hipellaphus are very like those of the dorcas:[33] the elephant
is the least hairy of all quadrupeds. The tails of animals
are like their bodies in roughness, and smoothness, in
as many as have tails in proportion to their size, for some
have very small tails.

[Pg 27]

5. Camels have a part peculiar to themselves, called the
hump upon the back; the Bactrian camel differs from the
Arabian; the one has two humps, the other but one; and they
have another hump below, like the one on their back, upon
which the rest of their body is supported, when they go
down upon their knees. The camel has four mammæ, like the
cow, and a tail like an ass, and the pudendum is behind;
it has but one knee in each leg, and not many joints, as
some persons say; this appearance arises from the position
of the abdomen. It has a talus like that of an ox, misshapen,
and small in proportion to its size.

6. The hoof is cloven; it has not teeth in both jaws.
The cloven hoof is formed in this manner; the lower part is
somewhat cloven, as far as the second joint of the toes, but
the upper part is four-cleft as far as the first joint of the
toes; there is a membrane uniting the cloven parts as in
geese, the foot is fleshy underneath like that of a bear, wherefore,
when camels are used in war, and become footsore, their
drivers put them on leather shoes. All quadrupeds have
their legs bony and sinewy and without flesh, that is all
animals with feet are so formed, excepting man, and they
are without hips; this is particularly the case with birds.
But on the contrary, the hips, thighs, and legs of man are
more fleshy than almost any other part of his body, for even
the calf of his leg is fleshy.

7. Some sanguineous and viviparous quadrupeds have many
divisions in the foot, like the hands and feet of man; for
some, as the lion, the dog, and the panther, have many divisions
of the foot; others are cloven-footed, and instead of
nails have hoofs, as the sheep, the goat, the stag, and the
river-horse. Some are without divisions in the foot, as the
solidunguli, the horse, and the mule. The genus of swine
belongs to both classes; for in Illyria, Pæonia, and other
places, there are swine with a solid hoof. Those with a two-cleft
hoof have two divisions, before and behind; in those
with a solid hoof this is continuous.

8. Some animals have horns, others have none; most of
those with horns have also cloven feet, as the ox, the stag,
and the goat. We have never seen an animal with a solid
hoof with two horns, and there are only a few that have a
solid hoof and one horn, as the Indian ass, and the oryx.[34]
[Pg 28]
Of all animals with a solid hoof, the Indian ass alone has a
talus. Swine, as I said before, belong to both classes, so that
they have not a well-formed astragulus.

9. Many animals with cloven hoofs have a talus; no animals
with their feet in many divisions have a talus, nor has
man. The lynx has as it were half a talus, and so has the
lion, but it is more intricate, as some pretend. The talus is
always in the hind leg, and it is placed upright upon the gamb,
with the lower part outwards, and the upper part inwards;
the parts called Coa[35] turned inwards towards each other, and
the Chia turned outwards, and the projecting portions upwards.
This is the position of the talus, in all animals
which are furnished with this part. Some animals have a
cloven hoof, and a mane, and two horns turned towards each
other, as the bonassus, an animal which inhabits the country
between Pæonia and Media.

10. All animals with horns are four-footed, unless there is
any animal which metaphorically, and for the sake of a word, is
said to have horns, as they say that the serpents in the neighbourhood
of Thebes in Egypt have, though it is nothing
more than an appendage, that is called a horn. The stag is
the only animal that has solid horns, the horns of all other
animals are hollow for a part of their length, and solid at
the extremity; the hollow part is principally formed of skin,
and round this is arranged the solid part, as in the horns of
oxen. The stag is the only animal which casts its horns;
they are reproduced; this takes place every year after the
animal has attained the age of two years; other animals
never lose their horns unless destroyed by violence.

Chapter III.

1. The parts of the mammæ also, and the organs of generation,
are different in man and in other animals. For some
have the mammæ forward on or near the breast, and two
mammæ with two nipples, as man and the elephant, as I
said before, for the elephant has two mammæ near the arm-pits;
in the female they are small, and do not bear any
proportion to the size of the animal, so that they are
scarcely visible in a side view; the males also have mammæ as
well as the females, but they are exceedingly small.

[Pg 29]

2. The bear has four, other animals have two mammæ upon
the thighs, and two nipples like sheep; others have four nipples,
as the cow; some animals have not their nipples on the breast
and thighs, but on the abdomen, as the dog and the hog,
they have many nipples, but not all of the same size; other
animals also have more than two, as the panther, which has
four on the abdomen; the lioness has two on the abdomen,
the camel has two mammæ and four nipples, like the cow.

3. Among animals with a solid hoof the males have no
mammæ, except some horses which bear a resemblance to
their dams. Some males have the penis external, as man, and
the horse, and many others; some internal, as the dolphin.
Of those animals in which it is external, some have it in
front, as those which I have named; and some of these have
both the penis and testicles loose, as in man; others have
them close to the abdomen; some have them more, others
less loose, for this part is not equally free in the boar and
the horse.

4. The elephant has a penis like a horse, but small and less in
proportion to the size of its body; its testicles are not external
but internal, and near the kidneys, wherefore also the work
of copulation is quickly performed. The female has the
pudendum in the same position as the udder of the sheep,
and when excited with desire, it is lifted up outwards, so as
to be ready for copulation with the male; and the orifice of
the pudendum is very wide. Most animals have the penis
in the same direction, but some are retromingent, as the lynx,
lion, camel, and hare. In some males, as I have said, the
direction of the penis is different, but all females are retromingent,
for even in the female elephant the pudendum is
placed under the thighs, as in other animals.

5. The penis is very different in different animals, for in some
it is cartilaginous and fleshy, as in man; the fleshy part does
not swell, but the cartilaginous portion is erected; in others
it is sinewy, as the camel and the stag; in others it is bony, as
the fox and the wolf, the weasel and the martin, for the
martin also has a bony penis.

6. Again, man being a perfect animal, has the upper part
of his body less than the lower part; the contrary is the case
with other sanguineous animals: by the upper portion of
his body we mean the portion of his body from the head to
[Pg 30]
the anus, and by the lower, the parts from hence downwards.
In those animals which have feet the hind leg is
the lower part of the body in point of size; and in those
without legs, the same relation is observed in their various
kinds of tails. Such is the nature of perfected animals, but
they differ in the development of their parts. Man in the
young state has the upper part of his body greater than the
lower; but as he grows the proportion of his parts changes,
wherefore also he is the only animal which does not move in
the same way when young and when grown up, for at first
a child crawls like a four-footed animal.

7. Some animals grow in the same proportion throughout, as
the dog—others when they are first born have their upper
part proportionally less than the lower, but as they approach
maturity, the upper parts increase in size, as in the lophuri,
for in these animals the part from the hoof to the haunch never
grows after their birth.

8. There is a great difference in the teeth of animals, both
among themselves and from the human type; all viviparous
and sanguineous quadrupeds have teeth; some have teeth in
both jaws, which others have not; this is the first distinction.
Those which have horns do not possess teeth in both jaws,
for they have no front teeth in the upper jaw. There are
others, as the camel, which, though it has no horns, has not
teeth in the upper jaw.

9. Some animals have tusks like the boar, others have not;
some have pointed teeth, as the lion, panther, and dog; the
teeth of others have an even surface, as the ox and the horse.
Animals with pointed teeth have their teeth fitting into each
other; no animal has both tusks and horns, neither those
with pointed teeth nor any others. Most animals have their
front teeth sharp, and their hind teeth flat; all the teeth of
the seal are sharp pointed, showing an approximation to the
race of fishes, for all fishes have pointed teeth.

10. None of these genera have a double row of teeth. But,
if we may believe Ctesias, there are some which have this
peculiarity, for he mentions an Indian animal called martichora,
which had three rows of teeth in each jaw; it is as
large and as rough as a lion, and has similar feet, but its
ears and face are like those of a man; its eye is grey, and
its body red; it has a tail like a land scorpion, in which there
[Pg 31]
is a sting; it darts forth the spines with which it is
covered instead of hair, and it utters a noise resembling the
united sound of a pipe and a trumpet; it is not less swift of
foot than a stag, and is wild, and devours men.

11. Man sheds his teeth, and so do other animals, as the
horse, the mule, and the ass; man sheds his front teeth, but no
animal sheds the molar teeth; swine do not shed any of their
teeth. About dogs, there is some doubt; some persons think
they do not shed their teeth at all, others that they shed only
the canine teeth; but it has been observed that they do shed
their teeth like men: perhaps it has escaped notice, because
they do not shed them before the inner ones, which are similar,
are grown up.

12. And it is probable that the same takes place in other
wild animals, since they are said only to shed their canine
teeth. Young dogs are known from old ones by their teeth,
for young dogs have sharp white teeth, old dogs have them
black and blunted. The horse is in this respect different
from all other animals; for while the teeth in other animals
become darker as they grow older, in the horse they become
more white.

13. Those which are called canine teeth are placed between
the cutting and the molar teeth, and partake of the nature of
both, for they are wide below, but sharp at the top. The
male has more teeth than the female in mankind, and sheep,
and goats, and swine. This has not been observed in other
animals. Those persons which have the greatest number of
teeth are the longest lived; those which have them widely
separated, smaller, and more scattered, are generally more
short lived.

14. The last molar teeth, which are called wisdom teeth, appear,
both in the male and female about the age of twenty,
and some women cut the molar teeth at eighty years of age,
causing great pain in the extremity of the jaw, and some
men also: this happens with persons who do not cut their
wise teeth at the proper age.

15. The elephant has four teeth on each side, with which he
grinds his food, for he reduces his food very small, like meal.
Besides these, he has two tusks: in the male these are large,
and turned upwards; in the female they are small, and bent
in the contrary direction. The elephant has teeth as soon
[Pg 32]
as it is born; but the tusks are small, and therefore inconspicuous
at first. It has so small a tongue within its
mouth, that it is difficult to see it.

Chapter IV.

1. Animals have very differently-sized mouths, for some have
wide, open mouths, as the dog, the lion, and all animals
with pointed teeth; other animals have a small mouth, as
man, or a moderately-sized one, as the swine. The Egyptian
river-horse has a mane like a horse, and a cloven hoof
like the ox; it has a flat face; the talus is like that of other
animals with cloven hoofs, and it has large projecting teeth;
it has a tail like a hog, and utters a sound like the neighing
of a horse; it is about the size of an ass, and its skin is
so thick that shields are made of it; its intestines are like
those of a horse or ass.

Chapter V.

1. Some animals unite in their nature the characteristics of
man and quadrupeds, as apes, monkeys, and cynocephali.
The monkey is an ape with a tail; cynocephali have the same
form as apes, but are larger and stronger, and their faces
are more like dogs’ faces; they are naturally fierce, and their
teeth are more like dogs’ teeth, and stronger than in other
genera.

2. The apes are hairy in their upper parts, so as to bear
some resemblance to quadrupeds, and also in the lower,
because they are like men, for in this particular, as I said
before, there is a difference in men and brutes; their hair
is coarse, and apes are rough both above and below. They
bear a strong likeness to men in their face, for their nostrils,
ears, and teeth, both the fore and back teeth, are like
his; and as for eye-lashes, though other animals are entirely
without them, the ape has them on the lower eye-lid; they
are, however, very thin, and altogether small.

3. Upon the breast are two small mammæ, with two nipples;
the arms are like those of man, but hairy; both the arms and
legs are bent like those of man, the curves of the limbs being
turned towards each other. Besides these, it has hands, fingers,
and nails like those of man, but all indicating an approximation
to the brute; their feet are peculiar, for they
[Pg 33]
are like great hands. The fingers upon them are like those
on the hands, and the middle one is the longest; the sole
of the foot is like a hand, except that it extends the whole
length of the hand like a palm, and is hard at the extremity,
and is a bad and obscure representation of a heel.

4. The feet are used for both the purposes of hands and
feet, and are bent like hands. The humerus and the femur
are short compared with the cubitus and the leg. The navel
is not prominent, and there is a hard place about the region
of the navel. Like quadrupeds, the upper part of the body
is much larger than the lower, almost in the proportion of
five to three, and the feet are like hands, and as it were
made up of hands and feet, a foot as far as the extremity
of the heel, and the remainder like a hand, for the fingers
are furnished with something like a palm.

5. The ape passes more of its time as a quadruped than
a biped, and like a quadruped, it has no nates, nor has it
a tail like a biped, but only something in representation of
a tail. The pudendum of the female resembles that of a
woman; that of the male is more like a dog’s. The monkey,
as I said before, has a tail, and all the internal parts of
the body are like those of man. The external parts of viviparous
quadrupeds are of this nature.

Chapter VI.

1. Oviparous and sanguineous quadrupeds (for no sanguineous
land animal that is not either a quadruped or apodal
is oviparous) have a head, neck, back, upper and lower parts
of the body, and fore and hind legs, and something resembling
a breast, like oviparous quadrupeds: most of them also
have a large tail, some a small one; all of them have many toes
and divided feet, and all the organs of sense, and a tongue,
except the Egyptian crocodile. And in this respect it resembles
some fishes, for the tongue of fishes is thorny, and
not free, and in some the place for the tongue is altogether
smooth, and without division (so that nothing is visible),
unless the lips are drawn aside.

2. They have no ears, only a passage for hearing; neither
have they any mammæ, and the penis and testicles are internal,
and not external. They have no hair, but are covered
with scales, and all are furnished with sharp teeth. The
[Pg 34]
river-crocodiles have eyes like hogs, and great sharp teeth,
strong claws, and an unbroken scaly skin. In the water
their sight is imperfect, but very good on land. They pass
the greatest part of the day on land, and of the night in the
water, for they cannot bear the cold air.

Chapter VII.

1. The chameleon has the whole of its body like that of a
lizard, and the ribs, descending downwards, are joined together
on the hypogastric region, like those of fish, and
the back-bone stands up, like that of a fish; its face is like
that of the chœropithecus.[36] It has a very long tail; the extremity
is very smooth, and rolled together like a thong. It
is raised, upon longer legs than a lizard; the joints of the legs
are bent in the same direction as the lizard’s.

2. Each of its feet is divided into two parts, having the
same relation to each other as our thumbs have to the
rest of the hand: and, for a short distance, each of these is
divided into toes; in the fore-feet the internal part has three,
the external two toes; in the hind feet the internal part
has two, and the external three toes; there is a claw upon
each of its toes like that of birds of prey; its whole body
is rough, like the crocodile.

3. Its eyes are placed in a hollow, and are very large
and round; surrounded with skin like the rest of its body,
and in the middle is left a small aperture through which
it sees; this is never covered with skin. The eye is turned
round in a circle, and it can direct its vision to any side, so
that it can see where it will. The change in the colour of
its skin takes place when it is filled with air. It can acquire
either a black colour, like that of the crocodile, or ochreous,
like that of the lizard, or spotted with black, like the panther;
and this change takes place over the whole body, for the
eyes also change like the rest of the body, and so does the tail.

4. Its movements are slow, like those of the tortoise;
when dying, it becomes ochreous, and retains this colour after
death. The œsophagus and trachea of the chameleon are
similar to the same parts in lizards; it has no flesh, except a
little on the head and cheeks, and upon the appendage at the
end of its tail. It has no blood, except about the heart, and
[Pg 35]
eyes, and the parts above the heart, and the veins that extend
from these: and even in these there is very little blood.

5. The brain lies a little above the eyes, and is continuous
with them; and when the outside skin of the eye is taken
away, a bright object shines through it, like a bright
ring of brass. Through the whole of its body many strong
membranes are extended, which are much stronger than in
other animals. It breathes strongly for some time after it
has been dissected, and there are some slight movements of
the heart; it also continues to contract its sides, but not the
other parts of the body. It has no distinct spleen; and it
hides itself in rocks like the lizard.

Chapter VIII.

1. Birds also have many parts like the animals described
above. For all these have a head, neck, back, and under
parts of the body, and something resembling a breast. They
have two legs, and thus resemble men more than other animals,
except that the joints bend backwards like those of quadrupeds,
as I said before. They have neither hands, nor fore-feet,
but wings; herein they differ from all other animals.
Again, the hip is like a thigh, large and united as far as
the middle of the abdomen, so as to look like a thigh,
when it is separated from the rest of the body; and the thigh
where it is joined to the leg is another part. The class of
birds with crooked claws have the largest thigh, and
stronger breasts than others.

2. All birds have claws and many divisions of the foot;
in most of them the toes are quite separate; but the swimmers
have their feet covered with a web, but even these have
distinct and jointed toes. All birds that fly high in the air
have four toes; and, generally, these are placed three forwards,
and one backward, like a heel; a few birds have two
toes turned forwards and two backwards, as the bird called
jynx.[37] This bird is somewhat larger than the spize,[38] and is
variegated in appearance. The formation of its toes is peculiar,
and so is that of its tongue, which is like a serpent’s.
This it can project from its mouth, as much as the width of
four fingers, and draw it in again. Like a snake it can turn
its neck quite round, whilst the rest of its body is perfectly
[Pg 36]
still. It has large claws, like those of the colius,[39] and it
hisses with its voice.

3. Birds have a mouth, but its construction is peculiar,
for they have neither lips nor teeth, but a beak, and
neither ears nor nostrils, but only passages for these organs,
for the nostrils in the beak, and for the ears in the head.
They have two eyes like other animals, without eyelashes;
when heavy with sleep, they close their eyes with the
lower eyelid; and all possess a nictitating membrane, which
closes the eye. The owl-like birds also use the upper eyelid.
The same is the nature of the scaly animals, as the
saurians, and others of this class; all of them close their
eyes with the lower eyelid, but they do not all wink like
birds. Again, birds have neither scales nor hair, but
feathers; all the feathers have a stem.

4. Birds have no tail, but a rump; in birds with long
legs, or palmated feet, this is short, in others it is large.
These last, when they fly, keep their legs close to the
body, but the others stretch them out behind them. All
birds have a tongue, but this differs in various kinds:
some have it large, others small. Next after man, some
birds articulate words better than any other animals; this is
particularly the case with those with broad tongues. No
oviparous animal has an epiglottis on its trachea: but it
can close and open the passage, so as to prevent any heavy
thing finding its way into the lungs.

5. Some tribes of birds have spurs; this is never the
case with those which have crooked claws. Those with
crooked claws are more active in flight; those which have
spurs, are heavier in their make.

6. Some birds have a crest, mostly formed of erect
feathers; the domestic fowl, alone, is peculiar, for its crest
is neither flesh, nor very unlike flesh.

Chapter IX.

1. Among aquatic animals, there is one class of fish, which
embraces many forms, and is separated from other animals,
for it has a head, and upper and lower parts, in which last
are the stomach and bowels, and a continuous and undivided
tail. This is not alike in all. They have neither neck nor
limb, nor internal and external testicles, nor mammæ, nor
[Pg 37]
has any other animal mammæ that is not viviparous, nor
indeed all viviparous animals, but those only that are internally
viviparous, and not first of all oviparous. For the dolphin
is a viviparous animal, wherefore it has two mammæ,
not indeed above, but near the organs of reproduction. It
has not evident nipples, but, as it were, a stream flowing from
each side. From these the milk exudes, and the young ones
suck as they follow the mother. This has been distinctly
observed by some persons.

2. But fish, as we have observed, have neither mammæ
nor any external passage for the genital organs. In the
branchia they have a distinctive organ, through which they
eject the water they have received into their mouths; and
they have fins, most fishes have four, but the long fishes, as
the eel, have only two placed near the branchia, and in this
respect the cestreus,[40] a fish in the lake of Siphæ, is similar to
the eel,[41] and so is the fish called tænia.[42] Some of these
long fish have no fins, as the muræna, nor have they divided
branchia like other fish.

3. Some fish with branchia have coverings over their branchi;
in all the cartilaginous fishes they are uncovered. All
fishes that have coverings have the branchia placed on their
sides; among the cartilaginous fishes some are broad in the
lowest part, as the narce[43] and the batos;[44] some very long in
the sides, as all the galeodea.[45] In the batracus,[46] although the
branchia are on the sides, they are covered with a coriaceous,
not a prickly membrane, like those of fishes which are not
cartilaginous.

4. In some fishes with branchia they are single, in others
double, but the last towards the body is always single.
Some have but few branchia, others have many; but their
number is always equal on both sides, and those with the
smallest number have always one on each side; this is
double in the capros;[47] others have two on each side, sometimes
these are single, sometimes double, as in the conger[48]
and the scarus;[49] others have four simple branchia on each
side, as the ellops,[50] synagris, muræna, and eel; others have
[Pg 38]
four, all divided except the last, as the cichle,[51] perca,[52] glanis,[53]
and cyprinus;[54] all the galeodea have five double branchia on
each side, the xiphias[55] has eight, which are double. This is
the manner and number of the branchia of fishes.

5. And fish differ in other respects besides their gills, for
they have no hair like viviparous quadrupeds, nor scaly
plates like oviparous quadrupeds, nor feathers like birds, but
the greater number of them are covered with scales; some of
them are rough, and a very few are smooth. Some cartilaginous
fishes are rough, others smooth. Congers, eels, and
tunnies are smooth. All fish except the scarus have pointed
teeth, and all have sharp teeth, some several rows of them, and
teeth on the tongue; they have also a hard prickly tongue, so
united to the mouth as sometimes to appear without a tongue.

6. The mouth of some fishes is wide, like viviparous quadrupeds.
They have no external organs of sense, nor even
passages for smelling or hearing; but all have eyes without
eyelids, though their eyes are not hard. All fishes are sanguineous;
some are oviparous, others viviparous; all those
that are covered with scales are oviparous. The cartilaginous
fishes are all viviparous, except the batrachus.

Chapter X.

1. The remaining class of sanguineous animals is that of
serpents; these partake of both characters. The greater
portion of them inhabit the land, a few inhabiting water are
found in rivers. There are also serpents in the sea very like
those on land, except in their head, which is more like that
of the conger. There are many genera of sea-serpents, and
they are of all kinds of colours; they do not exist in the
deepest part of the ocean. Serpents are apodal, like fishes.

2. There are also marine scolopendræ,[56] very like those on
land, but rather less; they live in rocky places; in colour
they are redder, and they have more feet, and slighter legs
than in the terrestrial species. These also, like the serpents,
are not found in deep places.

3. And there is a small fish which lives among the rocks,
which some call echineis;[57] some people use it for trials
and philtres; it is not fit for food. Some people say it
[Pg 39]
has feet, but it has none; the fins, however, are like feet,
which gives it this appearance. I have now described the
external parts of sanguineous animals, their nature, and their
number, and the differences which occur amongst them.

Chapter XI.

1. First of all we will speak of the internal parts of sanguineous
animals, for the greatest number of genera differ
from other animals, some being sanguineous, others ex-sanguineous.
The sanguineous genera are man, viviparous
and oviparous quadrupeds, birds, fishes, and whales, and
perhaps others that are anonymous, because they do not
form a genus, but simply species amongst each other, as the
serpent and the crocodile.

2. All viviparous quadrupeds have an œsophagus and
trachea, situated as in man, and so have oviparous quadrupeds
and birds, though there is some difference in the formation
of these parts; all that breathe by inhaling and exhaling
air have lungs, trachea, and œsophagus. The position of the
œsophagus and trachea, though similar, is not the same, nor
are the lungs alike in all, nor similar in position.

3. All sanguineous animals have a heart, and a division
in the middle of the body, called a diaphragm. In small
animals its smallness and thinness render it less apparent.
The heart of the ox is peculiar; for there is a kind of ox,
though not the whole genus, which has a bone in its heart,
and there is also a bone in the heart of the horse.

4. Not all animals have lungs, fish and those with gills have
no lungs. All sanguineous animals have a liver, generally a
spleen also; but in oviparous animals that are not viviparous,
the spleen is so small as nearly to escape notice, as in
most birds, the pigeon, kite,[58] hawk,[59] and owl. The ægocephalus[60]
has none at all. Oviparous quadrupeds are of the same
nature, for they have a very small spleen, as the tortoise,
emys,[61] phryne, lizard, crocodile, and frog.

5. Some animals have a gall upon the liver, others none.
Among viviparous quadrupeds the stag[62] has none, nor the
deer,[63] horse, mule, ass, seal, and some swine. The Achaïnian
stag appears to have the gall in the tail; that which they call
[Pg 40]
gall in these animals resembles it in colour, but it is not liquid
like gall, but more like the spleen in its internal structure.

6. All, while they are alive, have worms[64] in the head; they
are produced in the hollow part under the hypoglottis, and
near the vertebræ, where the head is joined on. In size
they resemble very large maggots; they are numerous, and
continuous, in number not generally more than twenty.
Stags, as I have observed, have no gall, but their intestines
are so bitter that dogs will not eat them if the deer are fat.

7. The elephant also has a liver without a gall, but when
the part where the gall is attached in other animals, is cut
open, a quantity of fluid like bile, more or less abundant, runs
out. Among those animals which inhale sea-water, and have
lungs, the dolphin has no gall. All birds and fishes have
galls, and all oviparous quadrupeds, to speak of them at
once, have a gall, greater or less; but in some fishes it is
placed upon the liver, as the galeodea, glanis, rine,[65] leiobatus,[66]
narce, and in some long fish, as the eel, belone,[67] and
zygæna;[68] and the callionymus[69] has a gall upon the liver,
larger in proportion to its size than any other fish. Others
have a gall upon the intestines, extending from the liver by
several thin passages; the amia[70] has it stretched out upon
the intestines, and equal to them in length, and many times
folded upon it. Other fish have the gall upon the intestines,
some at a greater, others at a less distance, as the
batrachus, elops, synagris, muræna, xiphias.

8. And the same genus often appears to have the gall
extended in both directions, as the conger, in some individuals
it is turned towards the liver, in others suspended before
the liver. The same structure is observed in birds, for
some have the gall turned towards the stomach, and others
towards the entrails, as the pigeon, crow, quail, swallow,
sparrow; in others it is directed both towards the liver
and the stomach, as the ægocephalus; in others, as the hawk
and kite, it is directed towards the liver and the intestines.

Chapter XII.

1. All viviparous quadrupeds have kidneys and a bladder,
but some oviparous animals have neither, as birds and
[Pg 41]
fishes, and among oviparous quadrupeds the marine turtle
is the only one that has them at all proportionate to its size.
The marine turtle has the kidneys like those of oxen, and
that of the ox is like a great many kidneys joined together.
In all its internal parts, the bonassus[71] is like the ox.

2. The position which these parts occupy is the same in all
animals, and the heart is in the middle of the body of all creatures,
except man. In him it is inclined towards the left side;
and, as it was before observed, the apex of the heart is
directed forward in all, but in fishes it does not appear to
be so, for the apex of the heart is not directed towards the
chest, but towards the mouth and head, and the top of the
heart is suspended from the place where the right and left
branchia are joined to each other, and there are also other
passages which extend from the heart to each of the branchia,
greater towards the larger branchia, and less towards
the smaller; but that to the top of the heart in great fishes
is a thick white tube.

3. A few fishes, as the conger and the eel, have an œsophagus,
but even in these it is very small; in some of the
fish that have a liver, it is placed on the right side, and has
no lobes; in others, it is divided from the commencement;
and the greater part is on the right side. For in some fish
each part of the liver hangs down, and the divisions are not
united at their origin, as in the tribe of fish called galeodea,
and in a species of hare which is found near the lake of
Bolba, in the place called Sycine, and in other places, so
that one might suppose that they had two livers, on account
of the distances at which the passages unite, as in the lungs
of birds.

4. In all animals the spleen is naturally situated on the
left side. The case has occurred that an animal having been
opened, has been observed to have the spleen on the right
side and the liver on the left, but such appearances are considered
ominous. In all animals the trachea reaches to the
lungs (its nature will be described in another place); and the
œsophagus, in all that have this part, reaches to the stomach
through the diaphragm. For most fishes (as I observed before)
have no œsophagus, but the stomach is united directly
with the mouth. So that it often happens that, when great
[Pg 42]
fishes are pursuing small ones, the stomach falls forward
into the mouth.

5. All the animals that have been mentioned have a
stomach, and in the same situation, for it is universally
placed under the diaphragm, and an intestine follows it,
and ends in the exit for the food which is called the anus.
But the stomach of different animals is variously formed,
for in the first place viviparous horned quadrupeds, which
have not teeth in both jaws, have four such passages, and
those animals are said to ruminate. For the œsophagus,
commencing in the mouth, extends to the parts just below the
lungs, and passes through the diaphragm to the great stomach.

6. The internal part of this is rough, and folded together;
and it is united, near the junction of the stomach,
to the part which, from its appearance, is called the net,
for the exterior is like a stomach, but the inside resembles
the meshes of a net; in point of size, the net is much less
than the stomach. Next to this is the part called echinus,
because internally it is rough and channelled; it is nearly
the same size as the net. Next to the echinus is the
enystrum, which is both larger and longer than the echinus,
and internally covered with many large and smooth folds;
after this are the entrails.

7. This is the nature of the stomach of animals with horns,
and no teeth in the upper jaw. But they differ from each
other in the form and size of these parts; and because the
œsophagus is sometimes united to the middle, and sometimes
to the side of the stomach. Most animals which have
teeth in both jaws have but one stomach, as the man, dog,
bear, lion, and the wolf. The thos[72] has all its intestines like a
wolf. All these have but one stomach, to which the bowel
is united. But in some of these the stomach is larger, as
the hog and the bear; that of the hog is marked with a
few smooth lines. In other animals the stomach is less,
not indeed much larger than the intestine, as the dog, lion,
and man. In the forms of their bowels other animals
are divided into two classes, resembling these types; for in
some the stomach resembles a dog’s, in others a hog’s, both
the greater and lesser animals in the same way; and the
stomachs of various animals differ in size, form, thickness,
thinness, and the position of the junction of the œsophagus.

[Pg 43]

8. And the nature of the bowels differs in the before-named
animals, those, namely, which have not, and those which have
teeth in both jaws, in size, thickness, and folding. The intestines
of the ruminants are all large, and so are the animals
themselves; there are a few small animals of this class, and
there is no horned animal which is very small. And some
have appendages to the intestines, for none of the animals
with teeth in both jaws have straight intestines. There are
enlargements in the bowels of the elephant, which give it
the appearance of having four stomachs; in these the food is
detained, and apart from these there is no receptacle for the
food. Its intestines are very like those of the hog, except
that the liver is four times greater than that of the ox, and
other parts also; the spleen is small in proportion to its size.

9. The stomach and intestines of oviparous quadrupeds
bear a similar proportion to each other, as in the land and
marine tortoise, the lizard, and both kinds of crocodiles,[73]
and similar quadrupeds; for they have one simple stomach,
in some it is like that of the hog, in others like that of the
dog.

10. The class of serpents in almost every part of their
body resemble the saurians, which have feet, and are oviparous,
if we add to their length, and take away the feet;
for snakes are covered with scales, and have their upper
and lower parts like saurians, except that they have no testicles,
but, like fish, two passages united in one, and a
large and cloven uterus, but in other respects their intestines
are so like those of saurians, except that from
their elongated figure their intestines are long and narrow,
that they might be mistaken for them, from their similarity.

11. For the trachea is very long, and the œsophagus still
longer, and the commencement of the trachea is close to
the mouth, so that the tongue appears to lie beneath it.
The trachea appears to be above the tongue because this
last can be retracted, and is not always in one position, as
in other animals. Their tongue is long, thin, and black,
and can be put forth for some distance. The tongue of
serpents and saurians is distinct from that of all other
animals, for the extremity of the tongue is cloven; this is
most remarkable in serpents, for the extremities of their
[Pg 44]
tongues are like hairs. The seal also has a forked tongue.
The serpent has a stomach like a very wide entrail, like
that of the dog, afterwards a very long and thin intestine,
which is alike to its extremity.

12. Behind the pharynx is a small kidney-shaped heart,
so that at times the apex does not appear to be directed
towards the chest, next to this is a single lung, divided by
a muscular passage, very long, and descending a long
distance from the breast. The liver is long and simple,
the spleen small and round, like that of the saurians.
The gall resembles that of fish, in water serpents it is
situated on the liver, in others generally upon the intestines.
They all have pointed teeth, and as many ribs as
there are days in the month, for they have thirty. Some
persons say that in one respect serpents resemble the
young of the swallow, for if their eyes are pierced with a
pointed instrument, they will grow again, and if the tails of
serpents or lizards be cut off, they will be reproduced.

13. The same remarks will apply to the intestines and
stomachs of fishes, for they have one simple stomach,
but it differs in form, for in some fishes it is like a bowel,
as in the one called scarus, and this is the only fish that
appears to ruminate, and the size of the intestines is
simple and folded together, for it can be resolved into one,
by unfolding it. The appendages of the stomach appear
to be peculiar to fishes and birds, for birds have them
above the stomach, and few in number, but in fish they
are above, and around the stomach. Some have many appendages,
as the gobius,[74] galeus,[75] perca, scorpios,[76] citharus,[77]
trigla,[78] and sparus.[79] But the cestreus has many on one side
of the stomach, and only one on the other. Some have
only a few, as the hepatus[80] and the glaucus,[81] and the chrysophrys[82]
also has only a few, but some individuals differ
from others, for one chrysophrys has many, another has
only a few. There are some fish which have none of them,
as most of the cartilaginous genera; others have a few,
and some a great many, and all fish have these appendages
very near the stomach itself.

[Pg 45]

14. Birds have their internal parts different from each
other and from other animals; for some have before the
stomach a crop, as the domestic fowl, pigeon, dove, and
partridge. The crop is a large and hollow skin, into which
the food is received before it is digested. Hence from the
œsophagus it is narrower, then wider, and where it descends
into the stomach it is smaller.

15. In most birds the stomach is fleshy and thick, and on
the outside there is a strong skin, which is separated from
the fleshy part. Some birds have no crop, but instead of
it a wide œsophagus, either wholly so, or in the part extending
to the stomach, as in the colœus,[83] raven, and crow.
The quail has the lower part of the œsophagus broad, the
ægocephalus has it small but wider, and so has the owl.
But the duck, goose, gull, diver, and bustard, have a wide
and broad œsophagus, and so have many other birds.

16. And some have a part of the stomach itself like a
crop, as the cenchreis;[84] and there are some which have
neither œsophagus nor a wide crop, but a large stomach;
these are small birds like the swallow, and the sparrow.
A few have neither a crop, nor a wide œsophagus, but a
very long one; these are birds with a long neck, as the porphyrion.[85]
Almost all these emit a moister excrement than
other birds.

17. The quail has these peculiarities, for it has a crop, and
before the stomach a wide and broad œsophagus. And the
crop is at a great distance from the part of the œsophagus
before the belly, considering the size of the bird. Birds
have generally a small intestine, which is single when unfolded,
and birds have appendages, a few, as I have said, and
not placed above, as in fish, but below, near the end of the
intestine. Some birds have not these appendages, though
they generally have them, as the domestic fowl, partridge,
duck, night-raven,[86] localus,[87] ascalaphus,[88] goose, bustard,
owl. Some of the small birds have them, but they are very
minute, as the sparrow.

BOOK THE THIRD.

Chapter I.

1. We have treated of the other internal parts of animals,
their number, their nature and varieties. It now remains for
us to speak of the organs of generation. In females these are
always internal; but there is much difference in males, for
some sanguineous animals have no testicles at all, in others
they are internal; and in some animals with internal testicles,
they are placed near the kidneys, in others near the
abdomen; in other animals they are external. The penis
of these last is sometimes united to the abdomen, in others
it is loose as well as the testicles; but in promingent and
retromingent animals it is suspended from the abdomen
in a different manner. Neither fish nor any other animal
with gills, nor the whole class of serpents, have testicles;
neither has any apodal animal which is not internally viviparous.

2. Birds have testicles, but they are internal and near
the loins, and so have oviparous quadrupeds, as the lizard,
tortoise, and crocodile, and among viviparous animals, the
hedgehog. In some viviparous animals they are situated internally
upon the abdomen, as the dolphin among apodal
creatures, and the elephant among quadrupeds. In other
animals the testicles are external. It has been previously
observed, that the manner and position of their junction with
the abdomen is various, for in some they are joined on and do
not hang down, as in swine, in others they hang down as in
man.

3. It has also been observed that neither fishes nor serpents
have testicles, but they have two passages hanging down on
each side of the spine from the diaphragm, and these unite
in one passage above the anus, by above, we mean nearer
the spinal column. At the season of coition these passages
are full of semen, which exudes on pressure; the differences
[Pg 47]
among these may be seen by dissection, and in another place
they will each be considered more particularly.

4. All oviparous animals, whether bipeds or quadrupeds,
have their testicles placed in the loins below the diaphragm,
some of a white colour, others ochreous, but in all surrounded
with small veins; from each of these a passage is
produced, which afterwards become united in one, and, as
in fish, open near the anus. This is the penis, which is inconspicuous
in small animals; but in the larger, as the goose
and such like, it becomes more conspicuous immediately
after coition.

5. And these passages, both in fish and other animals,
are joined to the loins below the stomach and between the
entrails and the great vein, from which passages proceed to
each of the kidneys; and, as in fish, the semen may be seen
entering them at the period of coition, when these passages
become very conspicuous, but when this season is passed
the passages again become invisible. So also the testicles
of birds are either small or entirely invisible when not excited,
but when urged by desire they become very large; this is so
remarkable in pigeons and partridges, that some persons
have supposed that they had no testicles during winter.

6. In some of those animals in which the testicles are placed
forwards, they are internal and upon the abdomen, as in the
dolphin; in others they are externally conspicuous upon the
extremity of the abdomen. These animals are similar in
other respects, but differ in this, for in some the testicles
are uncovered, and others that have external testes they are
placed in a scrotum.

7. This is the nature of the testicles of all viviparous animals
with feet: from the aorta, passages like veins proceed
to the head of each testicle, and two others from the kidneys,
these last are full of blood, but those from the aorta contain
no blood. From the head of each testicle to the testicle
itself, there proceeds a thicker and more muscular passage,
which is in each testicle reflected back to the head of
the testicle, and from this point they again unite upon the
penis towards the fore-part of it.

8. And both these passages which are reflected back upon
themselves, and those which are seated upon the testicles,
are covered with the same membrane as the testes themselves,
[Pg 48]
so that unless this membrane is taken away, they all
appear to be one passage. These last passages, which are
seated upon the testicle, contain sanguineous fluid, but less
than those above from the aorta; but in the reflected
passages of the duct which is upon the penis, the fluid is
white. A passage also leads from the bladder, and is united
to the upper part of this duct, which is enclosed in the part
called the penis as in a husk. The accompanying diagram
will illustrate the position of these parts.

9. The origin of the passage from the trachea, a; the head
of the testes and the descending passages, b b; the passages
which proceed from these, and are seated upon the testicle,
c c; the reflexed passages which contain the white fluid,
d d; the penis, e; the bladder f; the testicles, g g. But
when the testicles are cut out or otherwise destroyed, the
upper passages are retracted; in young animals castration
is performed by bruising the testicles, in older animals by
excision. And it has happened that a bull has begotten
young if admitted to the female immediately after castration.
This is the nature of the testicles of animals.

10. The uterus of the females that possess this organ is not
of the same nature, nor alike in all, but they differ from
each other both in viviparous and oviparous animals. The
uterus is double in all those animals in which it is situated
near the external organ of generation, one part lying on the
right side, the other on the left, but the origin is one, and
there is but one os uteri, which is like a very fleshy tube,
and in most animals, especially those of a large size, it is
cartilaginous. One part of this organ is called the uterus
and delphys (whence the word adelphi, brothers), and the
vagina and os uteri are called metra.

11. In all viviparous animals, whether bipeds or quadrupeds,
the uterus is placed below the diaphragm, as in the
human female, the bitch, sow, mare, and cow, and it is the
same in all horned animals. At the extremity of the uterus
most animals have a convoluted part called the horns; these
are not distinct in all oviparous animals; but in some birds
they are placed near the diaphragm, and in some fishes
below, as in the viviparous bipeds and quadrupeds. But
they are thin, membranaceous, and long, so that in very small
fish each part of the roe appears as one ovum, as if the fish
[Pg 49]
which are said to have a crumbling roe had but two ova, for
it is not one ovum but many, and therefore it may be resolved
into many.

12. In the uterus of birds the vagina is below, fleshy and
tough, but the part near the diaphragm membranaceous and
very thin, so that the eggs appear to be outside the uterus.
In large birds the membrane is more conspicuous, and if
inflated through the vagina, it swells and enlarges at places;
in small birds these parts are not conspicuous. The uterus
of oviparous quadrupeds, as the tortoise, lizard, frog, and
such like, is of the same nature, for the vagina below is one
and fleshy, but the division and the ova are higher up and
near the diaphragm.

13. In those apodal creatures which are outwardly viviparous
and inwardly oviparous, as the sharks and selachea—[The
selachea are apodal, furnished with gills, and viviparous]—the
uterus is divided, and as in birds, it commences
below and extends towards the diaphragm. The
ova are situated between the division, and above near the
diaphragm; and the animal is produced from the ovum after
this has descended into the open space.

14. The difference between the uteri of these fish and
others may be studied more accurately in drawings of dissections.
Serpents also differ much both among themselves
and from other animals, for all serpents except the viper are
oviparous; this one is viviparous, though at first internally
oviparous, wherefore, in many respects, its uterus resembles
that of the cartilaginous fishes. The uterus of the serpent
is long, like the body, and descends downwards, beginning
from one duct and continuing on either side of the spine as
far as the diaphragm, as if each were a passage, in which the
ova are placed in order; these ova are not extruded singly,
but connected together like a chain.

15. In all animals that are either internally or externally
viviparous, the uterus is situated above the abdomen; in all
oviparous creatures it is placed below, near the loins. Those
that are externally viviparous, but internally oviparous, partake
of both characters, for the lower part in which the ova
are situated is near the loins, the other part whence the ova
are extruded above the intestines. And there is also this
difference in the uteri of animals: those which have horns
[Pg 50]
and not teeth in both jaws have cotyledons in the pregnant
uterus, and some of those also with teeth in both jaws, as the
hare, the mouse, and the bat. But other viviparous animals
with teeth in both jaws, and with feet, have a smooth uterus.
The embryo is not united to the cotyledon, but to the
womb. This is the manner of the internal and external
heterogeneous parts of animals.

Chapter II.

1. Of the homogeneous parts of animals, the blood is common
to sanguineous animals; and so is the part in which it
is contained, which is called a vein; analogous to these, in
exsanguineous animals are the serum and the fibre. That
which especially constitutes the body is flesh or its analogue:
the bone and its analogue; the spine and the cartilage.
Next to this we place the skin, membranes, sinews, hair,
nails, and their analogue; after these, adeps, fat, and excrementitious
matters; then are fæces, phlegm, and bile, both
the yellow and the black.

2. But inasmuch as the blood and the veins seem to
occupy the chief place, we will first of all speak of these,
both for other reasons, and because former writers do not
appear to have described them rightly. The difficulty of
understanding them is the reason of their errors, for in
dead animals, the nature of the principal veins is obscure,
for they collapse as soon as the blood has escaped, and it
pours out of them as from a vessel. No part of the body,
except the veins, contains any blood, except the heart, which
has a little; but it is all in the veins. In living creatures
their nature cannot be distinguished, for they are internal,
and out of sight; so that those who consider them only in
dead and dissected animals, cannot see their principal origins.
But some, by the examination of emaciated persons,
have distinguished the origin of the veins, from the appearance
of those which are external.

3. For Syennesis,[89] a Cyprian physician, speaks thus:
“The larger veins are thus constituted. From the navel
around the loins, through the back to the lungs, under the
breasts; that from the right to the left, and that from the
[Pg 51]
left to the right. That from the left, through the liver to
the kidney and the testicle; that from the right to the spleen,
the kidney, and the testicle, and from thence to the penis.”

4. Diogenes[90] of Apollonia writes thus: “The veins are
thus placed in man. There are two very large ones, which
extend through the stomach by the spine of the back, one
to the right and the other to the left, each to the leg nearest
itself, and upwards to the head by the collar-bone, and through
the neck. From these great veins others extend through the
whole of the body, from the right to the right side, and from
the left to the left side. The largest are two from the heart,
surrounding the spine of the back; and others, a little higher
up, through the breasts under the arm-pits, each to the hand
nearest itself; and the one is called the splenetic, the other
the hepatic vein.

5. “The extremity of these veins is divided, one branch
goes to the thumb, and another to the wrist, and from these
many small branches are extended upon each hand, and the
fingers; and others, smaller still, branch off from these first
veins, from the right side to the liver, from the left to the
spleen and kidneys. The veins, which go to the legs, are
divided near the junction, and extend through the whole
thigh; but the largest of these extends to the back of the
thigh, and appears thick; another, less thick, passes through
the inside of the thigh, and afterwards veins extend by the
knee to the leg and foot. As on the hands, they are distributed
upon the tarsus of the foot, and from thence to the toes.

6. “A number of small veins are distributed on the
stomach and the lungs. Those that extend to the head,
through the jugular region, appear large in the neck. From
the extremity of each of these many veins are distributed
upon the head, some on the right side to the left, others on
the left side to the right, they all end near the ear. And
there is a second vein upon the neck on each side, somewhat
less than the other, to which the principal veins of
the neck are united. These pass inwards, through the
neck, and from each of them veins pass beneath the
shoulder-blade and to the hands; and near the splenetic and
[Pg 52]
hepatic veins there appear others a little less, which they
divide when any disease attacks the skin; but the hepatic
and splenetic veins are divided for any disease in the neighbourhood
of the stomach.

7. “Other veins pass from these, beneath the breasts;
and there are other small ones, which proceed from each of
these through the spinal marrow to the testicles, and others
beneath the skin, through the flesh, reach the kidneys; in
men they terminate upon the testicles, in women on the
uterus. The first veins from the stomach are wider, and
afterwards become smaller, until they pass over from the
right to the left, and from the left to the right; these are
called the spermatic veins. The thickest blood is beneath
the flesh, but that which is in excess in these places becomes
thin, and warm, and frothy.” These are the opinions
of Syennesis and Diogenes.

8. Polybus[91] writes thus: “There are four pair of veins, one
from the back of the head through the neck, on the outside,
near the spine on either side, as far as the thighs and the
legs, afterwards through the legs to the ancles, on the outside,
and to the feet. Wherefore, in complaints of the back
and thigh, they divide the veins upon the poplitic region, or
ancles, on the outside. Another pair of veins pass from the
head, by the ears, through the neck, these are called the
jugular veins; and others within, near the spine, lead by the
loins to the testicles and the thighs, and through the poplitic
region on the inside, and through the leg to the inner part
of the ancle, and the feet; wherefore, in complaints of the
loins and testicles, they bleed in the poplitic region and ancles.

9. “The third pair of veins, from the temple through the
neck, and beneath the scapula, reach the lungs; those from
the right to the left, under the breast, to the spleen and
kidneys; and those from the left to the right side, from the
lungs, under the breast, and liver, and kidney; and both
end beneath the testicles. The fourth pair from the forepart
of the head and the eyes, under the neck and collar-bones;
from thence they extend through the humerus to the elbow,
and through the cubitus to the wrist and the fingers, and
through the lower part of the arm to the arm-pits, and the
[Pg 53]
upper part of the lungs. The one reaches as far as the
spleen, the other to the liver; afterwards they both pass
over the abdomen to the pudendum.”

Chapter III.

1. The opinions of other persons are nearly these; and
there are other physiologists, but they have not treated so
accurately of the veins. But all agree in placing their
origin in the head and brain, in which they are incorrect.
But, as I have remarked before, it is difficult to discern the
course of the veins; indeed, it is impossible to understand
them unless a person will examine animals which, after
emaciation, have been killed by strangulation. The following
is the nature of the veins: There are two veins in the
interior of the chest, near the spine; the larger of these is
placed forward, the smaller is behind; the larger is inclined
to the right side, the smaller to the left; and this by some
persons is called the aorta, from the sinewy portion which
is seen in dead animals.

2. These veins have their origin in the heart, for they
pass completely through the other intestines, and always
preserve the character of veins. The heart is, as it were, a
part of them, and especially of the more forward and larger
one, for these veins are above and below, and the heart is in
the middle of them. The heart of all animals contains cavities,
but in the heart of very small animals the largest cavity is
scarcely perceptible, in moderately sized animals the second
cavity is scarcely visible, but in large animals they are all
three distinct enough. And when the apex of the heart is
turned forwards, as I have observed, the principal cavity is
on the right side, and above it the least is on the left side,
and the middle-sized one is between them; the two smaller
are far less than the greater.

3. All these are perforated towards the lungs, but imperceptibly
so from the minuteness of the passage, except
in one place. The great vein is suspended from the upper
portion of the principal cavity, and on the right side; afterwards
through the cavity a vein extends again, as if the
vein were a part of the cavity in which the blood stagnates.
The aorta has its origin from the middle cavity, but in a different
manner from the vein, for it communicates with the
heart by a much narrower passage, and the vein is continued
[Pg 54]
through the heart. But the aorta passes from the heart, and
the great vein is membranous and like skin, but the aorta is
narrow and very sinewy, and as it is continued towards the
head and the lower parts of the body, it becomes narrow and
quite sinewy.

4. A portion of the great vein is first of all extended upwards
from the heart to the lung, and to the junction of
the aorta, this vein being undivided and large; from this
place it divides into two branches, the one towards the lung,
and the other to the spine and the lowest vertebra of the
neck. The branch which goes to the lungs is first divided
into two branches, and afterwards it is continued upon every
tube and passage of the lungs, greater to the greater, and
less to the less, so as to leave no part in which there is not
a passage and a small vein. These last are invisible from their
minute size, so that the whole lung seems to be full of blood.

5. And the passages from the vein are above the tubes which
extend from the trachea. And the vein which is continued
upon the vertebra of the neck, and upon the spinal column,
returns again to the spine, as Homer writes in his poems: “He
cut off the whole vein which passes up the back and returns
again to the neck;”[92] and from this vein branches extend to each
rib and to each vertebra; but that which is upon the vertebra
near the kidneys branches in two directions. These branches,
then, of the great vein are subdivided in this manner.

6. And above these, from that part which is continued from
the heart, the whole is again divided into two directions, for
some reach to the sides and the clavicles, and afterwards
through the armpits to the arms, in the human subject, but
in quadrupeds to the fore-legs, to the wings in birds, and to
the pectoral fins in fishes. The commencements of these veins,
when they are first of all divided, are called jugular veins;
and having branched off in the neck from the great vein, they
are continued to the trachea of the lungs. And if these
veins are held on the outside, men fall down dead with insensibility,
with closed eyes, but without choking.

7. Extending in this manner, and receiving the trachea
between them, they reach the place where the jaws unite
with the head; and again from this point they are divided
into four veins, one of which bends backwards and descends
[Pg 55]
through the neck and shoulder, and meets the first division
of the vein by the joint of the arm; the other portion terminates
in the hand and fingers; and another branch extends
from each part near the ear to the brain, where it
is divided into many small branches upon the membrane
which surrounds the brain.

8. The brain never contains blood in any animal, nor does
any vein, small or great, terminate upon it; but some of
the other branches that extend from this vein surround the
brain in a circle, and others, end upon the organs of sense
and the teeth in very small veins. In the same manner,
also, the branches of the smaller vein, which is called the
aorta, are divided: they are continued beside those of the
great vein, but the tubes are smaller and the branches less
than those of the great vein.

Chapter IV.

1. The veins, then, are thus distributed in the parts above
the heart, but the part of the great vein which is below the
heart passes through the middle of the diaphragm, and is
united to the aorta and spinal column by membranous flaccid
passages. From this a short and wide vein passes through
the liver, from which many similar branches extend to the
liver, and disappear upon it. There are two branches of the
vein, one of which terminates upon the diaphragm, and what
is called the præcordia, the other returns through the arm-pit
to the right arm, and unites with the other veins near
the interior part of the elbow. For this reason physicians
treat certain diseases of the liver by venesection in this vein.

2. From the left of this there is a short and wide vein,
which reaches to the spleen, and the branches of this vein
are lost upon this organ, and another portion branching off
in the same way from the left the great vein passes up to
the left arm, except that the last-mentioned pass through
the liver, but this one through the spleen. Other branches
also separate from the great vein, the one to the omentum,
the other to the pancreas; and from this many veins extend
through the mesenterium, and all end there in one great
vein, which passes through the whole intestine and the
stomach, as far as the œsophagus; and many veins branch
off from them around these parts.

[Pg 56]

3. Both the aorta and the great vein continue as far as
the kidney each as a single duct; from this point they are
more closely united to the spinal column, and are each divided
into two parts, like the letter lambda (Λ), and the
great vein is placed farther back than the aorta. The
aorta is more closely united to the spinal column, near the
heart, and the junction is formed by small sinewy veins.

4. The aorta leaves the heart as a large hollow passage,
but as it advances it becomes narrower and more sinewy.
From the aorta, veins extend also to the mesenterium, like
those from the great vein, but far inferior in size, for they are
narrow and muscular. They terminate in small hollow
muscular veins. No branch of the aorta extends to the
liver and the spleen, but the branches of either vein extend
to each hip, and both touch upon the bone. Branches
reach the kidney both from the great vein and the aorta;
they do not, however, enter the cavity, but are taken up in
the substance of the kidney.

5. Two other strong and continuous passages reach from
the aorta to the bladder, and others from the cavity of
the kidney; but these do not communicate with the
great vein. From the centre of each kidney a hollow
sinewy vein passes through the other veins to the spinal
column; first of all they disappear upon each hip, and
then appear again in branches towards the hip; their extremities
are distributed upon the bladder and penis in
the male, and upon the uterus in the female; no branch
of the great vein passes to the uterus, but many and thick
ones reach it from the aorta.

6. From the aorta and great vein branches are distributed
to the nates; at first they are large and hollow, afterwards
they pass through the legs, ending upon the feet and toes;
and others again pass through the nates and thighs, alternately
from right to left, and they join with other veins
below the knees.

7. The nature and origin of the veins are evident from this
description. In all sanguineous animals, the nature and origin
of the principal veins are the same, but the multitude of smaller
veins is not alike in all, for neither are the parts of the same
nature, nor do all possess the same parts. Nor are the veins
equally apparent in all animals; but they are more manifest in
[Pg 57]
those which have most blood, and in the largest creatures; but
in those animals which are small, and have not much blood,
either by nature or from excess in fat, they are not so easily
investigated, for some of the passages are confused, like
rivulets that are lost in beds of mud; and there are some
animals which have but few, and these fibres instead of veins.
The great vein is very conspicuous in all, even the smallest
animals.

Chapter V.

1. The following is the nature of the sinews of animals.
The origin of these, also, is in the breast, for there is a
sinew in the principal cavity of the heart itself; and that
which is called the aorta is a sinewy vein, for its terminations
are always sinewy, for they are not hollow, and are
extensible, like the sinews which end upon the bending of
the bones: for it is not the nature of sinews to be continuous
from one origin, like the veins, for the veins have
the whole form of the body as in outline sketches, so that
in emaciated subjects the whole mass appears full of veins,
for the same place is occupied by veins in lean persons that
in fat ones is flesh.

2. The sinews are drawn round the joints and flexures of
the bones; but, if their nature were continuous, the continuation
would be evident in emaciated persons. The
principal parts of the sinews are around the part of the
body appropriated to leaping, and this is called the poples.
Another double sinew is the tendon of the neck, and the epitonus
and the sinew of the shoulder, which aid in the support
of the body. The sinews around the joints have not received
any name, for all the bones where they are contiguous
are bound together by the sinews.

3. And there are many sinews round all the bones; there
are none in the head; but the sutures of the skull are
adapted to each other. It is the nature of sinew to tear
readily lengthwise, but across the fibre it is indivisible,
and it is very extensible. The sinews are surrounded by
a mucous, white, and gelatinous fluid, by which they are
nourished, and from which they seem to derive their origin.
The vein does not alter its form by combustion, but the
sinew is entirely destroyed. Neither does it unite after
division.

[Pg 58]

4. Numbness does not take place in those parts of the
body which contain no sinews. The sinews are most abundant
on the hands and feet, and on the ribs and shoulder-blades,
and round the neck and arms. All sanguineous
animals have sinews; but in those which have not jointed
limbs, and are without feet and hands, the sinews are small
and inconspicuous, so that in fishes they are most distinct
near the fins.

Chapter VI.

1. The fibres are between the sinews and the veins; but
some of them are moistened with serum, and they extend
from the sinews to the veins, and from the veins to the
sinews. There is also another kind of fibre, which is produced
in the blood of most, but not of all animals. When
this is extracted from the blood, it does not coagulate, but
if it is not taken out of the blood it coagulates. These
fibres are present in the blood of most animals, but not in
that of the stag, prox,[93] and bubalis,[94] and some others; so
that their blood does not coagulate like that of other
animals: the blood of stags is very like that of hares;
for in both of these coagulation takes place; not firm, as
in other animals, but trembling, like that of milk, if no coagulating
substance is put into it. The blood of the
bubalis coagulates more thickly, only a little less so than
that of sheep. This is the nature of veins, sinews, and
fibres.

Chapter VII.

1. The bones of animals depend upon one bone, and are
connected with each other, like the veins; and there is no
such thing as a separate bone. In all animals with bones
the spinal column is their origin. The spinal column is
made up of vertebræ, and extends from the head to the hips.
All the vertebræ are perforated; the upper part of the
head is a bone joined to the last vertebra, and is called the
skull, the saw-like part is the suture.

2. This is not alike in all animals, for the cranium of
some consists of a single bone, as in the dog; in others it
is compound, as in the human subject. The female has
[Pg 59]
one suture, in a circle; the male has three, meeting at the
top of the head, like a triangle; and human skulls have been
seen without sutures. The head is not composed of four
bones, but of six; two of these are placed above the ears,
and are small compared with the rest.

3. From the head the jaw-bones descend. All other animals
move the lower jaw, the river-crocodile alone moves
the upper jaw. In the jaws are the order of the teeth, which
are bony, in some parts they are perforated, in others they
are not. These are the only bones too hard to be engraved.

4. From the spinal-column, which is the point of union, originate
the clavicles and ribs; the breast also is placed upon
the ribs, and some of these are united, others are not, for
no animal has a bone round the stomach. There are also
the scapulæ upon the shoulders, and these are continued
upon the arms, and those again to the hands; and
in all animals with fore legs the nature of the bone is
the same.

5. At the extremity of the lower part of the spinal column,
and next to the hip, is the socket, and the bones
of the lower extremity, with those of the thigh and leg,
which are called the colenes. The ancles form a portion
of these, and the part called the spur in all creatures with
ancles. Continuous with these are the bones of the feet.
Viviparous animals with blood and feet do not differ much
in their bones, but rather by analogy, in hardness, softness,
and size. Again, some of the bones contain marrow, whilst
others, in the same animal, have none.

6. Some animals do not appear to have any marrow at all
in their bones, as the lion, whose bones are very small and
slight: or there may be marrow in a few of its bones, as in
those of the thigh and fore leg; otherwise, in the lion, the
bones are particularly solid, for they are sufficiently hard to
emit fire like stones on concussion. The dolphin also has
bones, but it has no spine, like fish. Some sanguineous animals
differ partially from these, as the class of birds. In others,
as fish, the bones are only analogous, for viviparous fish have
a cartilaginous spine, like those which are called selachea;
the oviparous fish have a spine, which is like the backbone
of quadrupeds.

7. It is a peculiarity in fish that some species have small
[Pg 60]
spines in the flesh separated from each other. Serpents are
like fish, for their back-bone is spinous; among oviparous
quadrupeds the greater animals have a bony vertebral
column; the lesser have a spinous one.

8. For all sanguineous animals have either a bony, or a
spinous column. The remainder of the bones exist in some
animals, but not in others, for if they have the limbs, they
have the bones belonging to them; for those that have not
hind and fore legs have not hams, nor are they present
in those animals which possess limbs unlike those of quadrupeds,
for in these they vary in size and proportion. This
is the nature of the bones of animals.

Chapter VIII.

1. Cartilage is of the same nature as bone, but it differs
in the greater and less, and neither bone nor cartilage are
reproduced if they are cut off. In sanguineous and viviparous
animals living on the land the cartilage is imperforate,
and does not contain marrow, like the bones; but the
flat selachea, which have a cartilaginous spine, have a cartilage
analogous to bone containing a liquid marrow. Viviparous
animals, with feet, have cartilage about their ears,
nostrils, and extremities of their bones.

Chapter IX.

1. There is another class of parts, which, though not the
same as these, are not very different, as nails, hoofs, claws,
and horns, and besides these, the beak of birds which alone
possess this part. For these are both flexible and fissile.
But bone is neither flexible nor fissile, but brittle; and
the colour of horns, nails, claws, and hoofs follow the
colour of the skin and the hair: for in black animals the
horns are black, and so are the claws and hoofs in those
with claws; in white animals they are white. There are
also intermediate colours, the nails also are of the same
nature.

2. But the teeth are like bones; wherefore, in black men,
Ethiopians, and such like, the teeth and the bones are
white, but the nails are black, like the rest of the skin.
[Pg 61]
The horns of most animals are hollow at their base, and
surround a bony process on their heads; but at the extremity
the horn is solid and single. The stag’s horns are
solid throughout, and divided; and these animals alone cast
their horns; this is done annually, if they are not cut
off. Concerning those that are cut off, we shall speak hereafter.

3. The horns are more nearly allied to skin than to bone,
so that in Phrygia and elsewhere there are oxen which
have the power of moving their horns, as they do their
ears; and of those which have nails (and all that have
toes have nails, and those that have feet have toes, except
the elephant, which has its toes undivided, and scarcely
distinguished, and no nails at all)—and of those with nails,
some have straight nails, like men, others crooked, as the
lion among beasts, and the eagle amongst birds.

Chapter X.

1. This is the nature of hair and its analogues and skin.
All viviparous animals, with feet, have hair; oviparous
animals, with feet, have scaly plates; and those fish alone
which produce friable ova are covered with scales; for the
conger and muræna among long fish have not such ova, and
the eel produces no ova. The hair differs in thickness, thinness,
and size, according to its situation, both in the parts of
the body which it occupies, and the nature of the skin, for
upon thick skins the hair is generally harsh and thick,
the hair is both thicker and longer in the hollow and
moist parts of the body, if they are such as to be covered
with hair.

2. And the case is similar in those animals which are
covered with plates or scales. If animals covered with soft
hair are placed in good pastures their hair will become
coarser; and, on the contrary, it becomes finer and less in
those that have coarse hair. Warm and cold situations also
make a difference, for the hair of natives of warm climates
is harsh, but it is soft in those of colder climates. Straight
hair is soft, crisped hair is harsh.

3. It is the nature of hair to split; and different kinds
of hair are dissimilar in excess and deficiency; some are so
changed by harshness as to bear slight resemblance to hair,
[Pg 62]
and are more like spines, as in the hedgehog, wherein they
resemble nails. So again the nails in some animals are not
different from bones in point of hardness.

4. Man has the thinnest skin in proportion to his size.
There is a mucous, glutinous fluid in the skin of all animals,
less in some, more in others, as in the skins of oxen, from
which glue is made; and sometimes glue is made from fishes.
When the skin alone is cut it is insensible, especially
that upon the head, from the absence of flesh between that
and the bone. Wherever the skin is without flesh it does
not unite again after being cut, as the thin part of the
cheek, the prepuce, and the eyelid. In all animals the skin
is continuous, and it is only wanting in places where there
are natural passages for exudation, and at the mouth
and nails. All sanguineous animals have a skin: all,
however, have not hair, but those which are described
above.

5. The colour of the hair changes in men as they grow
old, and the hair becomes grey. This takes place in other
animals, but not so remarkably as in the horse. The hair
begins to grow white from the extremity. Most white
animals are white from their birth, wherefore it is plain
that whiteness does not arise from dryness, as some persons
suppose, for no animal is born dry. In the exanthematous
disease, called whiteness, all the hair becomes hoary; and
some patients, who have suffered from illness, after the hair
has fallen off on recovery, have regained their dark-coloured
hair. Hair which is covered up becomes white more
readily than that which is exposed to the air; in man the
temples are the first to grow grey, and the fore part of
the head before the hind part, and last of all the hair on
the pubes.

6. Some of the hair exists on the body at the period
of birth, and some appears afterwards. In man alone the
hair on the head, eyelashes, and eyebrows exist at birth.
The hair on the pubes, in the armpits, and on the chin appear
successively after birth, so that the parts on which
the hair appears at birth, and those on which it grows afterwards
are the same in number. In old age the hair on the
head especially is the first to fail, and falls off. This is
only in front, for no one ever becomes bald on the back
[Pg 63]
of the head. The smoothness on the crown of the head
is called baldness, that upon the eyebrows depilation;
neither of these takes place before the commencement of
puberty.

7. Children, women, and eunuchs never become bald. If
a person be castrated before puberty, the hair which grows
after birth never makes its appearance; if after puberty
these alone fall off, except the hair on the pubes. Women
have no hair upon the chin, excepting a few of those in
whom the catamenia have ceased, and the priestesses in
Caria: and this appears ominous of future events. Women
also have other hair, but not much. There are some
persons, both male and female, who from their birth are
without the hair which grows after birth; but those persons
are barren who have not hair on the pubes.

8. The rest of the hair grows proportionally, either more
or less. That upon the head grows the most, then that on
the chin, and thin hair most of all. The eyebrows grow so
thick upon some aged persons as to be cut off, for they are
placed upon the symphysis of the bone; and this being
separated in old persons, a more abundant moisture exudes.
Those on the eyelids do not grow, but they fall off,
when persons come to puberty, and especially in those of
warm sexual desires; they become grey very slowly. If the
hair is plucked out during the period of growth, it comes
again, but not after it has done growing.

9. Every hair has at its root a glutinous moisture, which
will adhere to anything with which it comes in contact,
soon after it is drawn out. In spotted animals the spots
exist both in the hair and upon the skin, and upon the skin
of the tongue. As for the beard, some persons have a thick
one, both beneath the chin and upon it; in others, these
parts are smooth, and the beard is on the cheeks. Those
who have smooth chins are least likely to become bald. The
hair grows in some diseases, as in phthisis especially,
and in old age, and upon dead bodies, and the hair becomes
harder instead of softer. The same is the case with the
nails. In persons of strong passions, the hair that is born
with them decreases, while that which comes after birth increases.

10. Those who suffer from enlarged veins are less likely
[Pg 64]
to become bald; and if they have this disease after they are
bald, the hair sometimes grows again. The hair, when
cut off, does not grow again from the extremity, but increases
by growth from the root. The scales of fishes
become harder and thicker, and in those that are growing
thin and old they become still harder. The hair and wool
of old animals becomes thicker, though the quantity decreases;
and the hoofs and claws enlarge as they grow old,
and the beaks of birds. And the claws grow in the same
way as the nails.

11. Feathered animals, like birds, do not change their
colour by age, excepting the crane, for this bird is ash-coloured,
and becomes black by age. But from the change
of season, when it becomes cold, some of those having but
one colour, black or grey, become white, as the crow,
sparrow, and swallow; but none of those which are white
become black. At different seasons of the year many birds
change the colour of their plumage, so as to render it difficult
for those who are not acquainted with them to recognise
them.

12. And many animals change their colour with a change
of water; for in one place they are black, and in another
white; and the same thing takes place at the season of coition.
There are many waters of such a nature that if
sheep drink of them before sexual intercourse, they produce
black lambs; as at that which is called the cold river in the
Thracian Chalcis (in Astyritis). And in Antandria there
are two rivers, one of which turns the sheep white, the
other black; and the Scamander appears to make the sheep
yellow, wherefore some people think that Homer called
the Scamander the Xanthus.

13. Other animals have no hair internally, nor upon the
bottom of their feet, though it is on the upper part. The
hare alone has hair on the inside of its cheeks, and upon
its feet, and the mysticetus[95] has no teeth in its mouth,
but hairs, like hog’s bristles. The hair, if it is cut off,
increases below, but not above. Feathers do not grow
either above or below, but fall out. The wing of the bee,
if it is plucked off, does not grow again, nor that of any
other creature which has an undivided wing; nor does the
[Pg 65]
sting of the bee grow after it is plucked out, but the animal
dies.

Chapter XI.

1. There are membranes in all sanguineous animals. Membrane
is like a dense thin skin, but it differs in kind, for it
is neither divisible nor extensible. There is a membrane
round every bone and every intestine, both in the greater
and smaller animals; they are inconspicuous in small animals,
owing to their thinness and small size. The principal
membranes are two, which surround the brain, one round
the bones of the head, and this is stronger and thicker than
that round the brain itself; and after these, the membrane
which surrounds the heart. A thin membrane does not
unite after it has been cut asunder, and the bones, when deprived
of their membranes, become inflamed.

2. The omentum is a membrane. All sanguineous animals
have an omentum; in some it is fat, in others it contains
no fat. In viviparous animals, with cutting teeth in
both jaws, it has its origin and is suspended from the middle
of the stomach, where it appears like a suture of this organ.
In those that have not teeth in both jaws, it is suspended
in the same way from the principal stomach.

3. The bladder also is membranous, but its character is
different, for it is extensible. All animals have not a
bladder, but all viviparous animals have this organ, and the
tortoise alone of oviparous animals. When the bladder is
cut it does not re-unite, except at the very origin of the
urethra, or only very rarely, for it has happened sometimes.
No moisture passes into the bladder of dead animals; but
in living creatures there are dry compounds, from which are
formed the stones that are found in persons labouring under
this disease; sometimes they are of such a nature in the
bladder as to differ in nothing from shells. This, then, is
the nature of veins, sinews, and skins, and of muscle and
membrane; and of hair, nails, claws, hoofs, horns, teeth and
beaks, and of cartilage, bone, and their analogues.

Chapter XII.

1. In all sanguineous animals, flesh, and that which is like
flesh, is between the skin and the bone, or what is analogous
[Pg 66]
to bone: for the same relation which a spine bears to a bone,
is also borne by flesh to that which is like flesh, in animals
possessing bones and spines. The flesh can be divided in
every direction, and so is unlike sinews and veins, which
can only be divided in their length. The flesh disappears
in emaciated animals, giving place to veins and fibres. Those
animals which can obtain abundance of good food have fat
instead of flesh.

2. Those that have much flesh have smaller veins and
redder blood, and their intestines and stomachs are small;
but those which have large veins and dark blood, and large
intestines and great stomachs, have also less flesh, for those
that have fat flesh have small intestines.

Chapter XIII.

1. Adeps and fat differ from each other, for fat is always
brittle, and coagulates upon cooling, but adeps is liquid, and
does not coagulate; and broths made from animals with
adeps do not thicken, as from the horse and hog, but that
made from animals with fat thickens, as from the sheep and
goat. These substances also differ in situation, for the
adeps is between the skin and the flesh; but the fat only
exists upon the extremity of the flesh. In adipose animals
the omentum is adipose, in fat animals it is fatty: for the
animals with cutting teeth in both jaws are adipose, those
that have not cutting teeth in both jaws are fat.

2. Of the viscera in some animals the liver is full of
adeps, as in the cartilaginous fishes, for oil is procured from
these during the process of decomposition, the cartilaginous
fish are particularly free from adeps on their flesh,
but the adeps is separated on the stomach. The fat also
of fishes is adipose, and does not coagulate; and some
animals are furnished with adeps on the flesh, and others
apart from the flesh; and those creatures in which the
adeps is not separated from the flesh have less of this
substance on the stomach and omentum, as the eel: for
these creatures have little fat on the omentum. In most
animals the adeps collects principally upon the abdomen,
especially in those which take little exercise.

3. The brain of adipose animals is unctuous, as in swine;
that of fatty animals is dry. Of all the viscera the kidneys
[Pg 67]
are surrounded by the greatest quantity of adeps in all animals;
that on the right side is always the least adipose;
and let there be ever so much adeps, there is always a space
left between the kidneys. They are also the most fatty of
the viscera, and especially in sheep, for this animal sometimes
dies from the entire concealment of its kidneys in fat.
This excessive fat around the kidneys arises from good
pasture, as in the Leontine territory of Sicily; wherefore
also in the evening they drive away the sheep which have
been feeding during the day, in order that they may take
less food.

4. The fat around the pupil of the eye is common to all
animals; for all have fat in this part, that possess it, and are
not hard-eyed. Fat animals, both male and female, are
more inclined to be barren, and all old animals become fat
more readily than young ones, especially when they increase
in depth, having obtained their proper width and length.

Chapter XIV.

1. The following is the nature of the blood. This is most
essential and common to all sanguineous animals, and is not
superadded, but exists in all animals that are not in a perishing
condition. All the blood is in a vessel called the veins,
but in no other part of the body, except the heart. The
blood of all animals has no sense of touch, nor has the excrementitious
matter in the stomach; neither have the brain, nor
the marrow, any sensation of touch; but wherever the flesh
is divided, the blood flows in the living subject, unless the
flesh is perishing. It is the nature of the blood to have a
sweet juice, as long as it is healthy and a red colour, and
that is bad which either by nature or disease is black. The
best kind of blood is neither very thick nor thin, unless it
is vitiated either by nature or disease.

2. In living animals it is always warm and moist, but
when taken out of the animal the blood of all creatures coagulates,
except that of the stag and deer, and perhaps some
others of the same nature. The blood of all other creatures
coagulates, unless the fibre is taken out of it. Bullock’s
blood coagulates faster than that of any other animals.
Amongst sanguineous animals, those which are both internally
and externally viviparous, have the most blood, and
[Pg 68]
after them the oviparous sanguineous animals; those which
are well disposed, either by nature or by health, have not a
great deal of blood, as in those that have just drank; nor
a very little, as in those which are very fat. Fat animals
have pure blood, though the quantity is small; as they become
more fat they lose a portion of their blood, for fat is
free from blood. Fat is not corruptible, but blood and the
parts that contain blood are very corruptible; of these the
parts surrounding the bones are most corruptible.

3. Man has the thinnest and purest blood, that of the ox
and ass is the thickest and blackest of all viviparous animals.
The blood is thicker and blacker in the lower than in
the upper part of animals. The blood palpitates in the veins
alike in all animals; this alone of all the fluids exists in every
part of the body of living subjects, and as long only as they
are alive. The blood first of all exists in the heart of all
animals before it is distributed through the body. When deprived
of their blood, or if the greater part escapes, they faint
away; but when a very great deal is lost, they die. When
the blood becomes very much liquefied, illness ensues, for it
becomes like serum, and flows through in such a manner,
that some have perspired blood; and when taken out of the
body, it does not coagulate into a mass, but into separate
and divided portions.

4. In sleeping animals, the blood in the extremities
is diminished, so that it does not flow freely when they
are pricked. Blood is formed from serum, and fat from
blood. When the blood becomes diseased, hæmorrhoids
are produced, either in the nose or anus, and a disease
called ixia.[96] When the blood becomes corrupted in the
body, pus is formed, and from pus a scab. The blood
in females differs from that of males, for it is more thick
and black in females of similar health and age. In the
whole of the body the quantity of blood is less in females,
but internally they are more full of blood. Of all females,
women have the most blood, and the catamenia are more
abundant in them than in other females.

5. When this blood is diseased, it is called a flooding.
Women have a less share in other diseases; but a few are
afflicted with ixia, and with hæmorrhoids and bleeding
[Pg 69]
from the nose; when any of these take place, the catamenia
decrease. The blood differs in proportion to the age in quantity
and appearance, for when very young, it is more like
serum, and very abundant; in the aged it is thick, black,
and in less quantity; in those in the prime of life it is between
these. In aged persons the blood coagulates quickly
in the body, or on the surface; but in young persons this
does not take place. Serum is imperfect blood, because it
has not ripened, or because it has become more fluid.

Chapter XV.

1. Concerning marrow, for this is one of the fluids which
exist in some animals. All the natural fluids of the body
are contained in vessels, as the blood in the veins, and the
marrow in the bones, and others in membranes, skin, and
cavities. The marrow is always full of blood in young animals;
but when they grow older, in the adipose it becomes
adipose, in fat animals fatty. There is not marrow in all
the bones, but only in those that are hollow, and not even
in some of these, for some of the bones of the lion have no
marrow, others but little; wherefore some persons say the
lion has no marrow at all, as was before observed. In the
bones of swine there is very little marrow, in some none at
all.

Chapter XVI.

1. These fluids are nearly always co-existent with animal
life; but milk and the spermatic fluid are produced afterwards.
Of these the milk is always secreted in those animals
in which it is present. The spermatic fluid is not
secreted in all, but in some as in fishes are what are called
melts. All animals having milk have it in the mammæ.
All animals that are both internally and externally viviparous
have mammæ, that is, all that have hair, as man, and
the horse, the cetacea, as the dolphin, seal, and whale, for
these also have mammæ and milk.

2. Those animals that are only externally viviparous, and
oviparous animals, have neither mammæ nor milk, as fish,
and birds. All milk has a watery serum, which is called
whey, and a substantial part called curds; the thicker kinds
of milk have the most curds. The milk of animals without
[Pg 70]
cutting teeth in both jaws, coagulates, wherefore cheese is
made from the milk of domestic animals. The milk of those
with cutting teeth in both jaws does not coagulate, but resembles
their adeps, and is thin and sweet; the milk of the
camel is the thinnest of all, next is that of the horse; in
the third place that of the ass. Cow’s milk is thicker.

3. Under the influence of cold, milk does not coagulate,
but becomes fluid; by heat it is coagulated, and becomes
thick. There is no milk in any animal before it
has conceived, or but rarely; but, as soon as it has conceived
the milk is produced; the first and last milk are
useless. Sometimes milk has come in animals not with
young, from partaking of particular kinds of food; and even
in aged females it has been produced so freely when sucked,
as to afford nourishment for an infant. And the shepherds
round Æta, when the shegoats will not endure the approach
of the males, cut their udders violently against a thorn, so
as to cause pain; at first, when milked, they produce
bloody, and afterwards putrid milk, but at last their milk
is as good as that of those which have young ones.

4. The males, both of man and other animals, rarely produce
milk; nevertheless, it is found in some cases: for in
Lemnos, a he-goat has given from the two nipples, which
are always found on the penis, so much milk, that cakes of
cheese were made from it. The same thing happened to
another he-goat, which was produced from this one; but
such things as these are considered ominous: for, on inquiry
being made of the god of Lemnos, he replied that there
should be an additional supply of cattle. A small quantity of
milk has been forced from some men after puberty; from
others a great quantity has been produced by suction.

5. There is a fatness in milk which becomes oily when
it is cooked. In Sicily, and other countries, when there is
an abundant supply of goat’s milk, they mix ewe’s milk
with it, and it coagulates readily, not only because it contains
abundance of curd, but also because it is of a drier
nature. Some animals have more milk than enough for the
support of their offspring, and this is useful for making
cheese, and for putting aside. The best is that of the sheep
and goats, and next, that of the cow. Mare’s milk and ass’s
milk are combined with the Phrygian cheese. There is
[Pg 71]
more cheese in the milk of the cow than of the goat: for
the shepherds say, from an amphora of goat’s milk they can
make nineteen cakes of cheese, each worth an obolus, and
thirty from cow’s milk. Other creatures have only enough
for their young, and no superabundance useful for making
cheese, as all those animals which have more than two mammæ,
for none of these have a superabundance of milk, nor
will their milk make cheese.

6. Milk is coagulated by the juice of figs, and by rennet;
the juice is placed upon wool, and the wool is washed in a
little milk; this coagulates upon mixture. The rennet is a
kind of milk, which is found in the body of sucking animals.
This rennet is milk, containing cheese, for the milk becomes
cooked by the heat of the body. All ruminating animals
contain rennet, and the hare among those with cutting
teeth in both jaws. The older coagulum is the better,
for such rennet is useful in diarrhœa, and so is that of the
hare. The rennet of the fawn is the best.

7. The greater or less quantity of milk drawn from
those animals which have milk, differs in the size of the
body, and the variety of the food. In Phasis there are very
small cows, each of which gives a great deal of milk; and
the large cows of Epirus give an amphora and half
of milk from each of their two mammæ; and the person
who milks them stands up, or only leans a little, because
he cannot reach them sitting down. The other animals of
Epirus are large except the ass, but the largest are the
cows and the dogs. These large cattle require more pasture;
but the country has a great deal so excellent, that
they can be changed to fit places every hour. The oxen
are the largest, and the sheep, called Pyrrhic; they have
received this name from king Pyrrhus.

8. Some kinds of food check the milk, as the medic grass,
especially in ruminating animals. The cytisus and orobus
have a very different effect; but the flower of the
cytisus is unwholesome, and causes inflammation; the orobus
does not agree with pregnant cattle, for it causes difficulty
of parturition. On the whole, those animals which are
able to eat the most food, as they are better adapted for
parturition, will also give the most milk, if they have enough
food. Some of the flatulent kinds of food, when given to
[Pg 72]
animals, increase the quantity of milk, as beans given freely
to the sheep, goat, ox, and chimœra,[97] for they cause the udder
to be distended; and it is a sign that there will be plenty
of milk when the udder is seen below before parturition.

9. The milk lasts a long time in those that have it, if
they remain without sexual intercourse, and have proper
food; and in sheep it lasts longer than in any other animals,
for the sheep may be milked for eight months. Altogether
the ruminating animals produce milk in greater abundance,
and more fitted for making cheese. Around Torona the
cows fail in their milk a few days before calving, but give
milk all the rest of the time. In women dark-coloured
milk is better for the children than that which is white;
and black women are better nurses than white women. The
most nutritious milk is that which contains the most cheese,
but that which contains less cheese is better for infants.

Chapter XVII.

1. All sanguineous animals eject the spermatic fluid; the
office it performs in generation, and how it is performed,
will be treated of in another place. In proportion to his
size man ejects more than other animals. This fluid, in animals
covered with hair, is glutinous, in others it is not glutinous;
in all it is white, so that Herodotus is mistaken
when he says that the Ethiopians have black semen.[98] The
semen comes out white and thick if it is healthy, but after
ejection it becomes thin and black; it does not thicken with
cold, but becomes thin and watery, both in colour and density.
By heat it coagulates and thickens, and when it has
been ejected for any time into the uterus, it comes out more
thick, and sometimes dry and twisted together. That which
is fruitful sinks in water, but the barren mixes with it. All
that Ctesias said about the semen of the elephant is false.

BOOK THE FOURTH.

Chapter I.

1. We have hitherto treated of sanguineous animals, the
parts possessed by all as well as those which are peculiar to
each class, and of their heterogeneous and homogeneous,
their external and internal parts. We are now about to
treat of ex-sanguineous animals. There are many classes
of these, first of all the mollusca.[99] These are ex-sanguineous
animals, which have their fleshy parts external, and their
hard parts internal, like sanguineous animals, as the whole
tribe of cuttle-fish. Next the malacostraca, these are
animals which have their hard parts external, and their interior
parts soft and fleshy; their hard parts are rather liable
to contusion than brittle, as the class of carabi and cancri.

2. Another class is that of the testacea. These are animals
which have their internal parts fleshy, and their external
parts hard, brittle, and fragile, but not liable to
contusion. Snails and oysters are instances of this class.

3. The fourth class is that of insects, which includes many
dissimilar forms. Insects are animals which, as their name
signifies, are insected either in their lower or upper part, or in
both; they have neither distinct flesh nor bone, but something
between both, for their body is equally hard internally and
externally. There are apterous insects, as the julus and
scolopendra; and winged, as the bee, cockchafer, and wasp;
and in some kinds there are both winged and apterous insects;
ants, for example, are both winged and apterous,
and so is the glowworm.

4. These are the parts of animals of the class mollusca (malacia);
first the feet, as they are called, next to these the
head, continuous with them; the third part is the abdomen,
which contains the viscera. Some persons, speaking incorrectly,
call this the head. The fins are placed in a circle
round this abdomen. It happens in many of the malacia
that the head is placed between the feet and the abdomen.

[Pg 74]

5. All the polypi, except one kind, have eight feet, with
a double row of suckers. The sepia,[100] teuthis,[101] and teuthos[102]
possess as a characteristic part two long proboscidiform members,
which have rough suckers at their extremities, with
which they seize their food and bring it to their mouth; and
when a storm arises they weather it out, fastening these
members upon a rock, like an anchor. They swim by means
of the fin-like members which are attached to the abdomen.
There are suckers upon all their feet.

6. The polypus[103] uses its tentacula both as feet and hands,
for it brings its food to its mouth with the two that are above
the mouth, and it uses the last of its tentacula, which is
the sharpest of all, in the act of coition; this is the only
one which is at all white, and it is divided at the extremity,
it is placed upon the back; and the smooth part, in
front of which are the acetabula, is called the back. In
front of the abdomen, and above the tentacula, they have a
hollow tube, by which they eject the sea-water which they
have received into the abdomen, if any enters through the
mouth. This part varies in position, and is sometimes on the
right side, sometimes on the left, and by this its ink is
ejected.

7. It swims sideways upon the part called the head,
stretching out its feet; as it swims it is able to see forwards,
for the eyes are upwards, and the mouth is placed behind.
As long as it is alive the head is hard, as if it were inflated;
it touches and holds with its tentacula bent downwards,
a membrane is extended throughout, between the feet, if it
falls into the sand, it can no longer hold by it.

8. The polypus and the above-mentioned malacia differ
from each other; the abdomen of the polypus is small, and
the feet are large; but of the others, the abdomen is large,
and the feet small, so that they cannot walk upon them.
They have also differences among each other; the teuthis
is the smallest, the sepia wider; the teuthos is much
larger than the teuthis, for it reaches the length of five cubits.
Some sepiæ are two cubits long, and the tentacula of the
polypus are as long, and even larger in size.

9. The class of the teuthos is rare, and differs in form from
[Pg 75]
the teuthis, for the extremity of the teuthos is wider; and,
again, the fin is placed round the whole abdomen, but it is
wanting in the teuthis. It is a marine animal, as well as
the teuthis. After the feet, the head of all these animals is
placed in the middle of the feet, which are called tentacula;
one part of this is the mouth, in which are two teeth; above
these are two large eyes; between these is a small cartilage,
containing a small brain.

10. In the mouth is a small piece of flesh, for these animals
have no tongue, but use this instead of a tongue. After
this, on the outside, the abdomen is apparent. The flesh of
this can be divided, not in a straight line, but in a circle.
All the malacia have a skin around this part. After the
mouth, they have a long and narrow œsophagus; and continuous
with this is a large round crop, like that of a bird;
this contains the stomach, like a net. Its form is spiral,
like the helix of a whelk; from this a thin intestine turns
back, to the vicinity of the mouth. The intestine is thicker
than the stomach.

11. The malacia have no viscus, except that which is
called the mytis,[104] and the ink which is upon it. The most
abundant and largest of all is that of the sepia; all exclude
this ink, when alarmed, but especially the sepia; the
mytis lies beneath the mouth; and through this the œsophagus
passes; and where the intestine turns back the ink
is beneath, and the same membrane surrounds both the ink
and the intestine. The same orifice serves for the emission
of the ink and the fœces.

12. There are some appearances of hair[105] in their bodies;
the sepia, teuthis, and teuthos, have a hard part upon the
forward part of the body; the one is called sepium (the
bone of the cuttle-fish), the other xiphus (the pen of the
loligo). These two are different; for that of the sepia is
strong and wide, partaking of the nature of spine and bone,
and it contains a spongy, friable substance; but the pen of the
teuthis is thin, and cartilaginous. In their form also they
correspond with the differences of the animals themselves.
[Pg 76]
The polypus has no hard internal part, but a portion of cartilage
round the head, which becomes hard as they grow old.

13. The females also differ from the males, for the latter
have a passage beneath the œsophagus, extending from
the brain to the lowest part of the body. That part to
which it reaches is like a teat. In the female there are two
such organs, which are placed above. In both sexes, some
small red bodies are placed under these. The polypus has
one capsule of eggs, which is uneven on the surface; it is
large; internally it is all of a white colour, and smooth.
The multitude of the ova is so great as to fill a vessel larger
than the head of the polypus.

14. The sepia has two capsules, and many eggs are in
them, like white hailstones. The position of each of these
parts may be seen in anatomical diagrams. In all these
creatures the male differs from the female, and especially
in the sepia. The fore part of the abdomen of the male
is always darker than the back; and more rough than in
the female, and variegated with stripes, and the extremity
of the body is more acute.

15. There are many kinds of polypus; one, which is the
largest of all, is very common. Those near land are larger
than those which are caught out at sea. There are smaller
kinds, which are variegated; these are not articles of food;
and two others, one of which is called eledone,[106] differs in
the length of its feet, and is the only one of the malacia with
a single row of suckers, for all the rest have two; the other
is called bolitæna,[107] and sometimes ozolis.

16. There are two other kinds which dwell in shells, which
some persons call nautilus[108] (and nauticus), and others call
it the egg of the polypus; its shell is like that of the hollow
pecten, and not like that which has its shells close together.[109]
This animal generally feeds near the land; when it is thrown
upon the shore by the waves, after its shell has fallen off, it
cannot escape, and dies upon the land. These animals are
small in form, like the bolitæna; and there is another,[110] which
[Pg 77]
inhabits a shell like a snail. This animal never leaves its
shell, but remains in it, like the snail, and sometimes stretches
out its tentacula. Let thus much be said about the malacia.

Chapter II.

1. Of the malocostraca, there is one genus, of carabi,[111] and
another, very like it, of astaci;[112] these differ from the carabi,
which have no claws, and in some other respects. There
is a third genus, of carides,[113] and a fourth, of carcini.[114] There
are more genera of carides, and of carcini; for among the
carides are the cyphæ,[115] the crangon,[116] and a small species, for
these never grow large.

2. The family of carcini is more various, and not so easily
enumerated; the largest genus is that called maia,[117] the next
to this the pagurus,[118] and the Heracleot carcini; and, again,
those that live in rivers. The other genera are small, and
have not received any name. On the Phenician coast there
are some that they call horsemen, because they run so fast
that it is difficult to catch them, and when opened, they are
empty, because they have no pasture. There is another
small genus like carcini, but in shape they resemble astaci.

3. All these creatures, as I observed before, have their
hard and shelly coats on the outsides of their bodies in the
place of skin, the fleshy part is internal. Their under parts
resemble plates, upon which the females deposit their ova;
the carabi have five feet on each side, including the claws;
the carcini, also, have in all ten feet, including the claws,
which are last. Of the carides, the cypha have five on each
side; those near the head are sharp, and five others on each
side of the stomach have flat extremities; they have no
plates upon the under part of their body; those on the
upper part are like the carabi.

4. The crangon is different, for it has, first of all, four
plates on each side, and, afterwards, three slight ones, continuous
with those on each side, and the greater part of the
remainder of its body is apodal; all the feet are directed
outwards to the side, like those of insects; but the claws,
in those that have them, all turned inwards. The carabus
[Pg 78]
also has a tail, and five fin-like appendages. The cypha,
among the carides, has a tail, with four fin-like appendages.
The crangon has fin-like processes on each side of the tail,
and the middle of them is spinous on both sides; but this
part is wide in the crangon, and sharp in the cypha. The
carcini alone are without a tail; the body of the carabi and
carides is elongated, that of the carcini is rounded.

5. The male carabus is different from the female, for the
female has the first foot divided; in the male it is formed of
a single claw, and the fin-like process on the lower part is
large in the female, and interchanged with each other in the
neck; in the male they are small and not interchanged. In
the male, also, the last feet are furnished with large and
sharp processes like spurs; in the female these are small and
smooth. They all have two large and rough processes, like
horns, before their eyes, and two, smaller and smooth, below.

6. The eyes of all these animals are hard, and capable of
motion, inwards, outwards, and to the side; the same is the
nature of the carcini, in which they are even more moveable.
In colour the astacus is all of a dull white, sprinkled
with black; it has eight small feet, as far as the large ones;
after these the large feet are far greater and wider at the
extremity than in the carabus, and they are unequal in
size; for on the right side the broad part at the end is long
and smooth, on the left side the same part is thick and
round; they are both divided from the extremity like a jaw,
with teeth above and below, only that in those on the right
the teeth are all small and sharp, and they are sharp at the
extremity of the left side; in the middle they are like molar
teeth; in the lower part are four close together, but in the
upper part three, but not close together.

7. In both claws the upper part is moved and pressed
down upon the lower; both are placed sideways in position,
as if intended by nature for seizure and pressure; above
these large feet are two rough ones, a little below the
mouth; and still lower, the branchial organs around the
mouth, which are rough and numerous, and these are continually
in motion; it bends and approximates its two
rough feet towards its mouth; the feet near the mouth have
smooth appendages.

8. It has two teeth like the carabus, above these the long
[Pg 79]
horns, much shorter and smoother than in the carabus; four
others of the same form as these, but still shorter and
smoother; and above these are placed its eyes, which are
small and short, and not large like those of the carabus.
The part above the eyes is acute and rough, as it were a
forehead, and larger than in the carabus: on the whole,
the head is sharper and the thorax much wider than
in the carabus, and its whole body is more fleshy and soft:
of its right feet, four are divided at the extremity, and four
not divided.

9. The part called the neck is externally divided into five
portions, the sixth and last division is wide and has five plates;
in the inside are four rough plates, upon which the females
deposit their ova. On the outside of each of these which
have been mentioned, there is a short and straight spine,
and the whole body, with the part called the thorax, is
smooth, and not rough as in the carabus. On the outside
of the large feet there are great spines. The female does
not in any way differ from the male, for whether the male
or female have larger claws, they are never both of them
equal.

10. All these animals take in sea-water through their
mouths; the carcini also exhale a small portion of that which
they have taken in, and the carabi do this through the
branchiform appendages, for the carabi have many branchiform
appendages. All these animals have two teeth: the
carabi have two front teeth, and then a fleshy mouth instead
of a tongue, from this an œsophagus continued on
to the stomach. And the carabi have a small œsophagus
before the stomach, and from this a straight intestine is
continued. In the caraboid animals and the carides, this
is continued to the tail in a straight passage, by which they
eject their excrements, and deposit their ova. In the carcini
this is in the middle of the folded part, for the place wherein
they deposit their ova is external in these also.

11. All the females also, besides the intestines, have a
place for their ova, and the part called mytis[119] or mecon, which
is greater or less, and the peculiar differences may be learned
by studying the individual cases. The carabi, as I have observed,
have two large and hollow teeth, in which there is
[Pg 80]
a juice resembling the mytis, and, between the teeth, a
piece of flesh resembling a tongue; from the mouth a short
œsophagus extends to a membranous stomach; in the part
of this nearest the mouth are three teeth, two opposite and
one below.

12. And from the side of the stomach there is a simple
intestine, which is of equal thickness throughout, reaching to
the anus. All these parts belong to the carabi, carides, and
carcini; and, besides these, the carabi have a passage suspended
from the breast and reaching to the anus; in the
female this performs the office of a uterus, in the male it
contains the spermatic fluid. This passage is in the cavity
of the flesh, so as to appear to be between portions of the
flesh, for the intestine is toward the curved part, but the
passage towards the cavity in the same way as in quadrupeds.
In the male this part differs in nothing from the
female, for both are smooth and white, and contain an ochreous
fluid, and in both sexes it is appended to the breast.

13. The ova and spirals occupy the same position in the
carides. The male is distinguished from the female by
having in the flesh upon the breast two distinct white bodies,
in colour and position like the tentacula of the sepia; these
appendages are spiriform, like the mecon of the whelk;
their origin is from the acetabula, which are placed under
the last feet. These contain a red sanguineous flesh, which
is smooth to the touch, and not like flesh. From the whelk-like
appendage there is another spiral fold, about as thick
as a thread, below which there are two sand-like bodies
appended to the intestine, containing a seminal fluid.
These are found in the male, but the female has ova of a
red colour; these are joined to the abdomen, and on each
side of the intestine to the fleshy part of the body, enclosed
in a thin membrane. These are their internal and external
parts.

Chapter III.

1. It happens that all the internal parts of sanguineous animals
have names, for all these have the internal viscera; but
the same parts of exsanguineous animals have no names, but
both classes have in common the stomach, œsophagus, and
intestines. I have before spoken of the carcini, and their
[Pg 81]
legs and feet, and how many they have, and in what direction,
and that, for the most part, they have the right claw
larger and stronger than the left; I have also mentioned
their eyes, and that most of them are able to see sideways.
The mass of their body is undivided, and so is their head,
and any other part.

2. In some the eyes are placed immediately below the
upper part, and generally far apart; in some they are placed
in the middle, and near together, as in the Heracleot carcini
and the maia. The mouth is placed below the eyes, and
contains two teeth, as in the carabus, but they are long
and not round, and over these there are two coverings,
between which are the appendages, which the carabus
also possesses.

3. They receive water through their mouth, opening the
opercula, and emit it again by the upper passage of the mouth,
closing the opercula by which it entered; these are immediately
beneath the eyes, and when they take in water
they close the mouth with both opercula, and thus eject
again the sea-water. Next to the teeth is a very short
œsophagus, so that the mouth appears joined to the stomach,
and from this proceeds a divided stomach, from the
middle of which is a single thin intestine; this intestine
ends externally beneath the folding of the extremity, as I said
before. Between the opercula there is something resembling
the appendages to the teeth of the carabi; within the abdomen
is an ochreous chyme, and some small elongated white
bodies, and other red ones scattered through it. The male
differs from the female in length and width, and in the abdominal
covering, for this is longer in the female, farther from
the body, and more thick-set with appendages, as in the female
carabi. The parts of the malacostraca are of this nature.

Chapter IV.

1. The testacea, as cochleæ,[120] and cochli,[121] and all that are
called ostrea,[122] and the family of echini, are composed of
flesh, and this flesh is like that of the malacostraci, for it is
internal; but the shell is external, and they have no hard
internal part. But they have many differences amongst
themselves, both in regard to their external shells and their
[Pg 82]
internal flesh, for some of them have no flesh at all, as the
echinus; in others it is entirely internal and out of sight,
except the head, as the land snails and those called coccalia,[123]
and in the sea the purpura[124] and the ceryx,[125] the cochlus, and
all the turbinated shells.

2. Of the rest some are bivalves, others univalves. I call
those bivalves which are enclosed in two shells; the univalves
are enclosed in one shell, and the fleshy part is uncovered,
as the lepas.[126] Some of the bivalves can open, as the
pectens and mya, for all these are joined on one side, and
separated on the other, so as to shut and open. There
are other bivalves which are joined on both sides, as the
solen; others which are entirely enclosed in their shells, and
have no external naked flesh, as those which are called tethya.[127]

3. And there is a great difference amongst the shells
themselves, for some are smooth, as the solen, mya, and
some conchæ, called by some persons galaces;[128] other shells
are rough, as the limnostrea,[129] pinnæ, some kinds of conchæ,
and the whelk; and of these some are marked with ridges, as
the pecten and a kind of concha, others are without ridges, as
the pinna and another species of concha. They also differ in
thickness and thinness, both in the whole shell and in certain
parts of the shell, as about the edges, for in some the edges
are thin, as the mya; others are thick-edged, as the limnostrea.

4. Some of them are capable of motion, as the pecten, for
some persons say that the pectens can fly, for that they
sometimes leap out of the instrument by which they are
taken. Others, as the pinna, cannot move from the point
of attachment; all the turbinated shells can move and crawl;
the lepas (patella) also feeds by going from place to place.
It is common to all those with hard shells to have them
smooth in the inside.

5. Both in univalves and bivalves the fleshy part is united
to the shell, so that it can only be separated by force; it is
more easily separated from the turbinated shells; it is a
characteristic of all these shells, that the base of the shell
has the helix directed from the head. All of them from their
birth have an operculum; all the turbinated testacea are
[Pg 83]
right-handed, and move, not in the direction of the helix,
but the contrary way.

6. The external parts of these creatures are thus distinguished;
the nature of their internal structure is similar
in all, especially in the turbinated animals, for they differ
in size and in the relations of excess, the univalves and
bivalves do not exhibit many differences. Most of them
have but few distinctive marks from each other, but they
differ more from the immovable creatures. This will be
more evident from the following considerations. In nature
they are all alike, the difference, as before said, is in
excess; for in larger species the parts are more conspicuous,
and less so in those that are smaller. They differ also in
hardness and softness, and such like affections.

7. For all have on the outside of the shell, in the mouth,
a hard piece of flesh, some more, some less; from the middle
of this are the head and the two horns; these are large in
larger species, in the little ones they are very small. The
head is protruded in the same manner in all of them, and
when the creature is alarmed it is again retracted; some
have a mouth and teeth, as the snail, which has small, sharp,
and smooth teeth.

8. They have also a proboscis, like that of the fly, and this
organ is like a tongue. In the ceryx and the purpura this
organ is hard, like that of the myops and œstrus, with which
they pierce through the skins of quadrupeds; but this is
more powerful in strength, for they can pierce through the
shells of the baits. The stomach is joined quite closely to
the mouth; the stomach of the cochlus is like the crop of a
bird; below this there are two hard white substances like
nipples, which also exist in the sepia, but are much harder.

9. From the stomach a long, simple intestine reaches as far
as the spiral, which is on the extremity of the body. These
are distinct, and in the purpura and the ceryx are in the
helix of the shell. The bowel is continuous with the intestine.
The intestine and bowels are joined together, and are
quite simple, to the anus. The origin of the bowel is around
the helix of the mecon,[130] and here it is wider. The mecon is,
as it were, a superfluous part in all testacea, afterwards another
bend causes it to return to the fleshy part; the end of
[Pg 84]
the entrail, where the fæces are emitted, is near the head, and
is alike in all turbinated shells, whether terrestrial or marine.

10. In the larger cochli a long white passage, contained
in a membrane, and in colour resembling the upper mastoid
appendages, is joined from the stomach to the œsophagus,
and it is divided into segments like the ovum of the carabus,
except that it is white, while the other is red. It has
neither exit nor passage, but it is contained in a thin membrane,
which has a narrow cavity. From the intestine
black and rough bodies descend continuously, like those in
the tortoise, but they are less black.

11. Both these and white bodies occur in the marine cochli,
but they are less in the smaller kinds. The univalves and
bivalves are in some respects like these, and in others they
are different, for they have a head, horns, and mouth, and
something like a tongue, though in smaller species these
are inconspicuous from their minute size, and they are not
discernible when the animals are dead or at rest. They all
contain the mecon, but not in the same position, nor of the
same size, nor equally conspicuous. In the lepas it is in the
bottom of the shell, in the bivalves near the hinge.

12. They all have hair-like appendages placed in a circle,
and so have the pectens, and that which is called the ovarium
in those that have it; where it is possessed, it is placed in a
circle on the other side of the circumference, like the white
portion in the cochli, for this is alike in all. All these parts,
as I have said, are conspicuous in the larger kinds, but in
smaller not at all, or scarcely so, wherefore they are most
conspicuous in the larger pectens, and these have one valve
flat like an operculum.

13. The anus is placed in the side in some of these creatures,
for this is where the excrement passes out. The mecon,
as I have said, is a superfluous part enclosed in a thin membrane
in all of them; that which is called the ovarium has no
passage in any of them, but it swells out in the flesh. This is
not placed upon the intestine, for the ovarium is on the right
side and the intestine on the left; the anus is the same as in
others; but in the wild patella, as some persons call it, or the
sea-ear (haliotis), as it is named by others, the excrement
passes out below the shell, for the shell is perforated. The
stomach also is distinct behind the mouth, and so is the ovarium
[Pg 85]
in this animal. The position of all these parts may be
seen in dissections.

14. The creature called carcinium[131] resembles both the
malacostraca and the testacea, for this in its nature is similar
to the animals that are like carabi, and it is born naked
(not covered with a shell). But because it makes its way
into a shell, and lives in it, it resembles the testacea, and
for these reasons it partakes of the character of both classes.
Its shape, to speak plainly, is that of a spider, except that
the lower part of the head and thorax is larger.

15. It has two thin red horns, and two large eyes below
these, not within nor turned on one side, like those of the
crab, but straight forwards. Below these is the mouth,
and round it many hair-like appendages; next to these, two
divided feet with which it seizes its prey, and two besides
these on each side, and a third pair smaller. Below the
thorax the whole creature is soft, and when laid open is
yellow within.

16. From the mouth is a passage as far as the stomach;
but the anus is indistinct; the feet and the thorax are hard,
but less so than those of the cancri; it is not united with the
shell like the purpura and ceryx, but is easily liberated from
it. The individuals which inhabit the shells of the strombus
are longer than those in the shells of the nerita.

17. The kind which inhabits the nerita is different, though
very like in other respects, for the right divided foot is small,
and the left one large, and it walks more upon this than the
other; and a similar animal is found in the conchæ, though
they are united to their shells very firmly; this animal is called
cyllarus.[132] The nerita has a smooth, large, round shell, in
form resembling that of the ceryx, but the mecon is not
black, but red; it is strongly united in the middle.

18. In fine weather they seek their food at liberty, and if a
storm arises, the carcinia hide themselves under a stone, and
the neritæ attach themselves to it like the patella, the
hæmorrhois, and all that class, for they become attached
to the rock, where they close their operculum, for this resembles
a lid; for that part which is in both sides in the
bivalves is joined to one side in the turbinated shells: the
interior is fleshy, and in this the mouth is placed.

[Pg 86]

19. The nature of the hæmorrhois, the purpura, and all
such animals is the same. But those which have the left
foot greater are not found in the shells of the strombus, but
in the neritæ. There are some cochli which contain an animal
like the small astacus, which is found in rivers; but
they differ from them in having the inner part of the shell
soft. Their form may be seen by examining dissections.

Chapter V.

1. The echini contain no flesh, but this part is peculiar, for
they are all of them void of flesh, and are filled with a black
substance. There are many kinds of echinus, one of which
is eatable; in this one the ova are large and eatable, both in
the greater and the less.

2. And there are two other kinds, the spatangus and that
called bryttus; these are inhabitants of the sea, and rare.
Those which are called echinometræ[133] are the largest of all.
Besides this, there is another small species, which has long
and sharp spines; this is procured from the sea, in many
fathoms water, and some persons use it for stranguary.

3. Around Torona there are white marine echini, which
have shells, and prickles, and ova, and are longer than others;
but the prickle is neither large nor strong, but soft, and the
black parts from the mouth are more in number, and united
to the outward passage, but distinct among themselves, and
by these the animal is as it were divided. The eatable kinds
are particularly and especially active, and it is a sign of them;
for they have always something adhering to their spines.

4. They all contain ova, but in some they are very small,
and not eatable: that which is called the head and mouth in
the echinus is downwards, and the anus placed upwards.
The same thing occurs in the turbinated shells, and the
patella; for their food is placed below them, so that the mouth
is towards the food, and the anus at or on the upper part of
the shell.

5. The echinus has five hollow internal teeth, in the midst
of these a portion of flesh like a tongue; next to this is the
œsophagus; then the stomach, in five divisions, full of fæculent
matter: all its cavities unite in one, near the anus,
where the shell is perforated. Beneath the stomach, in another
[Pg 87]
membrane, are the ova, the same number in all, they
are five in number, and uneven.

6. The black substance is joined above to the origin of the
teeth, this black substance is bitter and not eatable; in many
animals there is either this substance or its analogue, for it is
found in tortoises, toads, frogs, turbinated shells, and in the
malacia; these parts differ in colour, but are entirely or nearly
uneatable. The body of the echinus is undivided from beginning
to end, but the shell is not so when seen through,
for it is like a lantern, with no skin around it. The echinus
uses its spines as feet, for it moves along by leaning upon
them and moving them.

Chapter VI.

1. The creatures called tethya[134] have a most distinct character,
for in these alone is the whole body concealed in a
shell. Their shell is intermediate between skin and shell,
so that it can be cut like hard leather: this shell-like substance
is attached to rocks; in it there are two perforations,
quite distant from each other, and not easily seen, by which
it excludes and receives water, for it has no visible excrement
as other testacea, neither like the echinus, nor the
substance called mecon.

2. When laid open, there is first of all a sinewy membrane
lining the shell-like substance, within this the fleshy substance
of the tethyon. Unlike any other creature, its flesh,
however, is alike throughout, and it is united in two places
to the membrane and the skin from the side, and at its
points of union it is narrower on each side; by these places
it reaches to the external perforations which pass through
the shell; there it both parts with and receives food and
moisture, as if one were the mouth, the other the anus, the
one is thick, the other thinner.

3. Internally there is a cavity at each end, and a passage
passes through it; there is a fluid in both the cavities. Besides
this, it has no sensitive or organic member, nor is there
any excrementitious matter, as I said before. The colour of
the tethyon is partly ochreous, partly red.

4. The class acalephe[135] is peculiar; it adheres to rocks like
some of the testacea, but at times it is washed off. It is not
[Pg 88]
covered with a shell, but its whole body is fleshy; it is sensitive,
and seizes upon the hand that touches it, and it holds
fast, like the polypus does with its tentacula, so as to make
the flesh swell up. It has a central mouth, and lives upon
the rock, as well as upon shell-fish, and if any small fish falls
in its way, it lays hold of it as with a hand, and if any eatable
thing falls in its way it devours it.

5. One species is free, and feeds upon anything it meets
with, even pectens and echini; it appears to have no visible
excrement, and in this respect it resembles plants. There
are two kinds of acalephe, some small and more eatable,
others large and hard, such as are found near Chalcis. During
winter their flesh is compact, wherefore in this season
they are caught and eaten; in summer time they perish, for
they become soft; if they are touched they soon melt down,
and cannot by any means be taken away. When suffering
from heat, they prefer getting under stones. I have now
treated of malacia, malacostraca, testacea, and of their external
and internal parts.

Chapter VII.

1. Insects must now be treated of in the same manner.
This is a class which contains many forms, and no common
name has been given to unite those that are naturally
related, as the bee, anthrene,[136] and wasp, and such like;
again, those which have their wings enclosed in a case, as
the melolontha,[137] carabus,[138] cantharis, and such like. The
common parts of all insects are three—the head, the abdomen,
and the third, which is between these, such as in other
animals is the breast and back. In many insects this is one,
but in the long insects with many legs, the middle parts are
equal to the number of segments.

2. All insects survive being divided, except those which
are naturally cold, or soon become so from their small size,
so that wasps live after they are cut asunder; either the
head or the abdomen will live if united to the thorax, but
the head will not live alone. Those which are long, and
have many feet, will survive division for a considerable time;
both the extremities are capable of motion, for they walk
both upon the part cut off and upon the tail, as that which is
called scolopendra. All of them have eyes, but no other
[Pg 89]
manifest organs of sense, except that some have a tongue.
All the testacea have this organ, which serves the double
purpose of tasting and drawing food into the mouth.

3. In some of them this organ is soft; in others very
strong, as in the purpura; in the myops and œstrus this
member is strong, and in a great many more; for this member
is used as a weapon by all those that have no caudal
sting.

4. Those with this weapon have no small external teeth,
for flies draw blood by touching with this organ, and gnats
sting with it. Some insects also have stings, which are
either internal, as in bees and wasps, or external, as in the
scorpion. This last is the only insect that has a long tail;
it has claws, and so has the little scorpion-like creature[139]
found in books. The winged insects, in addition to other
parts, have wings. Some have two wings, as the flies;
others four, as the bees; none of the diptera have a caudal
sting. Some of the winged insects have elytra on their
wings, as the melolontha; and others no elytra, as the bee.
Insects do not direct their flight with their tail, and their
wings have neither shaft nor division.

5. Some have a horn before their eyes, as the psychæ[140] and
carabi. Of the jumping insects, some have their hind-legs
larger; others have the organs of jumping bent backwards,
like the legs of quadrupeds. In all, the upper part is different
from the lower, like other animals.

6. The flesh of their bodies is neither testaceous nor
like the internal parts of testacea, but between the two.
Wherefore, also, they have neither spine nor bone, as the
sepia; nor are they surrounded with a shell. For the body
is its own protection by its hardness, and requires no other
support; and they have a very thin skin. This is the
nature of their external parts.

7. Internally, immediately after the mouth, there is an
intestine which in most insects passes straight and simply
to the anus, in a few it is convoluted; these have no bones
nor fat, neither has any other exsanguineous animal. Some
have a stomach, and from this the remainder of the intestine
is either simple or convoluted, as in the acris.[141] The
[Pg 90]
tettix (grasshopper) alone of this, or any other class of
living creatures, has no mouth; but, like those with a caudal
sting, it has the appearance of a tongue, long, continuous,
and undivided, and with this it feeds upon the dew alone.
There is no excrement in the stomach. There are many
kinds of these creatures, they differ in being greater or less;
those called achetae are divided beneath the diaphragm, and
have a conspicuous membrane, which the tettigonia has not.

8. There are many other creatures in the sea which it is
not possible to arrange in any class from their scarcity.
For some experienced fishermen say they have seen in the sea
creatures like small beams, black and round, and of the same
thickness throughout; others like shields, of a red colour,
with many fins; others[142] like the human penis in appearance
and size, but instead of testicles they had two fins, and that
such have been taken on the extremity of grappling irons.
This is the nature of the internal and external parts of all
animals of every kind, both those which are peculiar to certain
species, and those which are common to all.

Chapter VIII.

1. We must now treat of the Senses: for they are not alike
in all, but some have all the senses, and some fewer. They
are mostly five in number; seeing, hearing, smelling,
taste, touch, and besides these there are none peculiar to
any creatures. Man, then, and all viviparous animals with
feet, besides all sanguineous and viviparous animals, have all
these, unless they are undeveloped in any particular kind,
as in the mole.

2. For this creature has no sight, it has no apparent eyes,
but when the thick skin which surrounds the head is taken
away, in the place where the eyes ought to be on the outside,
are the undeveloped internal eyes, which have all the
parts of true eyes, for they have both the iris of the eye,
and within the iris the part called the pupil, and the
white; but all these are less than in true eyes. On the
outside there is no appearance of these parts, from the
thickness of the skin, as if the nature of the eye had been
destroyed at birth; for there are two sinewy and strong
passages proceeding from the brain, where it unites with
[Pg 91]
the spinal cord, reaching from the socket of the eye, and
ending upon the upper sharp teeth.

3. All other animals are endued with the perception of
colours, sounds, smells, and taste. All animals have the
fifth sense, which is called touch. In some animals the
organs of sense are very distinct, and especially the eyes,
for they have a definite place, and so has the hearing. For
some animals have ears, and others open perforations: so
also of the sense of smelling, some animals have nostrils,
others passages, as the whole class of birds. In the same
way the tongue is the organ of taste.

4. In aquatic animals and those called fish, the tongue is
still the organ of taste, though it is indistinct, for it is
bony, and not capable of free motion. In some fish the
roof of the mouth is fleshy, as in some cyprini among river
fish, so that, without careful examination, it appears like a
tongue. That they have the sense of taste is quite clear,
for many of them delight in peculiar food, and they will
more readily seize upon a bait formed of the amia and other
fat fishes, as if they delighted in the taste and eating of
such baits.

5. They have no evident organ of hearing and smelling,
for the passages which exist about the region of the nostrils
in some fish do not appear to pass to the brain, but some of
them are blind, and others lead to the gills; it is evident,
however, that they both hear and smell, for they escape from
loud noises, such as the oars of the triremes, so as to be
easily captured in their hiding-places.

6. For if the external noise is not loud, yet to all aquatic
animals that are capable of hearing, it appears harsh and very
loud; and this takes place in hunting dolphins, for when they
have enclosed them with their canoes, they make a noise from
them in the sea, and the dolphins, crowded together, are
obliged to leap upon the land, and, being stunned with the
noise, are easily captured, although even dolphins have no
external organs of hearing.

7. And again in fishing, the fishermen are careful to
avoid making a noise with their oars or net when they perceive
many fish collected in one place; they make a signal,
and let down their nets in such a place that no sound of the
oar or the motion of the waters should reach the place
[Pg 92]
where the fish are collected, and the sailors are commanded
to row in the greatest silence until they have enclosed them.

8. Sometimes, when they wish to drive them together,
they proceed as in dolphin catching, for they make a noise
with stones that they may be alarmed and collected together,
and thus they are enclosed in a net. Before their inclosure,
as it was said, they prevent a noise, but as soon as they have
enclosed them, they direct the sailors to shout and make a
noise, for they fall down with fear when they hear the noise
and tumult.

9. And when the fishers observe large shoals at a distance,
collected on the surface in calm, fine weather, and
wish to know their size, and of what kind they are, if they
can approach them in silence, they avoid their notice, and
catch them while they are on the surface. If any noise is
made before they reach them, they may be seen in flight.
In the rivers, also, there are little fish under the stones,
which some persons call cotti:[143] from their dwelling beneath
rocks, they catch them by striking the rocks with stones,
and the fishes fall down frightened when they hear the
noise, being stunned by it. It is evident, from these considerations,
that fishes have the sense of hearing.

10. There are persons who say that fish have more acute
ears than other animals, and that, from dwelling near the
sea, they have often remarked it. Those fish which have the
most acute ears are the cestreus[144] (chremps),[145] labrax,[146] salpe,[147]
chromis,[148] and all such fishes; in others the sense of hearing
less acute, because they live in the deeper parts of the
ocean.

11. Their nature of smelling is the same, for the greater
number of fishes will not take a bait that is not quite fresh;
others are less particular. All fish will not take the same
bait, but only particular baits, which they distinguish by the
smell; for some are taken with stinking baits, as the salpe
with dung. Many fish also live in the holes of rocks, and
when the fishermen want to entice them out, they anoint
the mouths of these holes with salted scents, to which they
readily come.

[Pg 93]

12. The eel also is enticed out in this way, for they place
a pitcher of salt food, covering the mouth of the pitcher
with another vessel pierced with holes, and the eels are
quickly drawn forth by the smell of the bait. Baits made
of the roasted flesh of the cuttle fish, on account of its
strong smell, attract fish very readily. They say they put
the roasted flesh of the polypus upon their hooks for nothing
but its strong smell.

13. And the fish called rhyades,[149] when the washings of
fish or of fœtid drains are emptied into the water, make
their escape as if smelling the fœtid odour. They say that
fish soon smell the blood of their own kind; this is plain
from their hastening from any place where the blood of
fishes may be. On the whole, if any one use a putrid bait,
the fish will not come near it; but if a fresh strong-smelling
bait is used, they will come to it from a great distance.

14. This is especially observable in what was said of
dolphins, for these creatures have not external organs of
hearing, but are captured by being stunned with a noise, as
was before observed; neither have they any external organs
of smell, yet their scent is acute. Therefore, it is evident
that all creatures have these senses. Other kinds of animals
are divided into four classes; and these contain the multitude
of remaining animals, namely, the malacia, malacostraca,
testacea, and insects.

15. Of these the malacia, the malacostraca, and insects have
all the senses, for they can see, smell, and taste. Insects, whether
they have wings or are apterus, can smell from a great
distance, as the bee and the cnips[150] scent honey, for they
perceive it from a long distance, as if they discovered it by
the scent. Many of them perish by the fumes of sulphur:
ants leave their hills when origanum and sulphur are
sprinkled upon them. Almost all of them escape from the
fumes of burnt stags’ horns, but most of all do they avoid
the smell of burnt styrax.

16. The sepia, also, the polypus, and the carabus are
caught with baits; the polypus holds the bait so fast that
it holds on even when cut: if a person hold conyza to them,
they let go as soon as they smell it. So, also, of the sense
of taste, for they follow different kinds of food, and do not
[Pg 94]
all prefer the same food, as the bee approaches nothing that
is putrid, only sweet things; the gnat not what is sweet,
but what is acid.

17. As I before observed, the sense of touch belongs to
all animals. The testacea have the senses of smelling and
tasting. This is plain from the baits used, as those for the
purpuræ; for this creature is caught with putrid substances,
and will be attracted from a great distance to such baits,
as if by the sense of smell. It is evident from what follows
that they possess the sense of taste; for whatever they
select by smell, they all love to taste.

18. And all animals with mouths receive pain or
pleasure from the contact of food. But, concerning the
senses of sight and hearing, it is not possible to say anything
certain, or very distinct; the solens, if a person touch them,
appear to retract themselves, and try to escape when they
see an instrument approaching them, for a small portion of
them is beyond the shell, the remainder as it were in a retreat;
the pectens, also, if a finger is brought near them, open and
shut themselves as if they could see.

19. Those who seek for neritæ do not approach them with
the wind, when they seek them for baits, nor do they speak,
but come silently, as if the creatures could both smell and
hear; they say that if they speak, they get away. Of all testacea,
the echinus appears to have the best sense of smell amongst
those that can move, and the tethya and balanus in those
that are fixed. This is the nature of the organs of sense in
all animals.

Chapter IX.

1. The following is the nature of the voice of animals,
for there is a distinction between voice and sound. Speech,
again, is different from these. Voice is due to no other part
except the pharynx, the creatures, therefore, without
lungs are also without voice. Speech is the direction of the
voice by the tongue; the vowels are uttered by the voice
and the larynx, the mutes by the tongue and the lips; speech
is made up of these: wherefore, no animals can speak that
have not a tongue, nor if their tongue is confined.

2. The power of uttering a sound is connected with other
parts also; insects have neither voice nor speech, but make
[Pg 95]
a sound with the air within them, not with that which is
external, for some of them breathe not, some of them buzz,
as the bee with its wings, and others are said to sing, as the
grasshopper. All these make a noise with the membrane
which is beneath the division of their body in those which
have a division, as some families of grasshoppers by the
friction of the air. These insects, bees, and all other insects
raise and depress their wings in flight, for the sound is the
friction of the air within them. Locusts produce a sound
by rubbing themselves with their legs, which are adapted
for leaping. None of the malacia utter any sound or natural
voice, nor do the malacostraca.

3. Fish also are mute, for they have neither lungs,
trachea, nor pharynx. Some of them utter a sound and a
squeak; these are said to have a voice, as the lyra[151] and chromi,[152]
for these utter, as it were, a grunt; so does the capros, a fish
of the Achelous, the chalceus[153] and coccyx,[154] for the one
utters a sound like hissing, the other a noise like that of
the cuckoo, from whence also its name is derived. Some of
these utter their apparent voice by the friction of their
gills, for these places are spinous, in others the sound is
internal, near the stomach. For each of them has an organ
of breathing, which causes a sound when it is pressed and
moved about.

4. Some of the selachea also appear to whistle, but they
cannot be correctly said to utter a voice, only to make a
sound. The pectens also make a whizzing noise when they
are borne upon the surface of the water, or flying, as it is
called; and so do the sea-swallows,[155] for they also fly through
the air in the same way, not touching the sea, for they have
wide and long fins. As the sound made by birds flying
through the air is not a voice, so neither can either of these
be properly so called. The dolphin also utters a whistle
and lows when it comes out of the water into the air, in a
different way from the animals above-mentioned—for this
is a true voice, for it has lungs and a trachea, but its tongue
is not free, nor has it any lips so as to make an articulate
sound.

5. The oviparous quadrupeds, with a tongue and lungs,
[Pg 96]
utter a sound, though it is a weak one. Some of them hiss
like serpents; others have a small weak voice, others, as the
tortoise, utter a small hiss. The tongue of the frog is peculiar,
for the fore-part of it is fixed, like that of a fish; but
the part near the pharynx is free and folded up. With this it
utters its peculiar sound. The male frogs make a croaking
in the water when they invite the females to coition.

6. All animals utter a voice to invite the society and proximity
of their kind, as the hog, the goat, and the sheep. The
frog croaks by making its lower jaw of equal length, and
stretching the upper one above the water. Their eyes appear
like lights, their cheeks being swelled out with the
vehemence of their croaking; for their copulation is generally
performed in the night. The class of birds utter a
voice: those which have a moderately wide tongue have the
best voice; those also in which the tongue is thin. In
some kinds both male and female have the same voice; in
others it is different: the smaller kinds have more variety
in their voice, and make more use of it, than the larger
tribes.

7. All birds become more noisy at the season of coition.
Some utter a cry when they are fighting, as the quail; others
when they are going to fight, as the partridge; or when they
have obtained a victory, as the cock. In some kinds both
male and female sing, as the nightingale; but the female
nightingale does not sing while she is sitting or feeding her
young: in some the males alone, as the quail and the cock;
the female has no voice. Viviparous quadrupeds utter different
voices; none can speak—for this is the characteristic
of man, for all that have a language have a voice, but not
all that have a voice have also a language.

8. All that are born dumb, and all children, utter sounds,
but have no language; for, as children are not complete in
their other parts, so their tongue is not perfect at first; it
becomes more free afterwards, so that they stammer and
lisp. Both voices and language differ in different places.

9. The voice is most conspicuous in its acuteness or depth,
but the form does not differ in the same species of animals;
the mode of articulation differs, and this might be called
speech, for it differs in different animals, and in the same
genera in different places, as among partridges, for in some
[Pg 97]
places they cackle, in others whistle. Small birds do not utter
the same voice as their parents, if they are brought up away
from them, and have only heard other singing birds. For the
nightingale has been observed instructing her young, so
that the voice and speech are not naturally alike, but are
capable of formation. And men also have all the same voice,
however much they may differ in language. The elephant
utters a voice by breathing through its mouth, making no
use of its nose, as when a man breathes forth a sigh; but
with its nose it makes a noise like the hoarse sound of a
trumpet.

Chapter X.

1. Concerning the sleep and wakefulness of animals. It is
quite manifest that all viviparous animals with feet both
sleep and are awake; for all that have eyelids sleep with the
eyes closed; and not only men appear to dream, but horses,
oxen, sheep, goats, dogs, and all viviparous quadrupeds.
Dogs show this by barking in their sleep. It is not clear
whether oviparous animals dream, but it is quite plain that
they sleep.

2. And so it is in aquatic animals, as fish, the malacia,
the malacostraca, the carabi, and such like creatures. The
sleep of all these animals is short: it is plain that they do sleep,
though we can form no conclusion from their eyes, for they
have no eyelids, but from their not being alarmed; for if
fish are not tormented with lice, and what are called psylli,
they may be captured without alarming them, so that they
can be even taken with the hand. And if fish remain at
rest during the night a great multitude of these creatures
fall upon and devour them.

3. They are found in such numbers at the bottom of the
sea as to devour any bait made of fish that remains any length
of time upon the ground; fishermen frequently draw them
out hanging like globes around the bait. The following considerations
will serve still more to confirm our suppositions
that fishes sleep; for it is often possible to fall upon the
fish so stealthily as to take by the hand, or even strike them
during this time; they are quite quiet, and exhibit no signs
of motion except with their tails, which they move gently.
It is evident, also, that they sleep, from their starting if
[Pg 98]
anything moves while they are asleep, for they start as if
they were waked out of sleep.

4. They are also taken by torchlight while asleep; those
who are seeking for thynni surround them while asleep; it is
evident that they can be captured from their stillness, and
the half-open white (of their eyes). They sleep more by
night than by day, so that they do not move when they are
struck; they generally sleep holding by the ground, or the
sand, or a stone, at the bottom, concealing themselves beneath
a rock, or a portion of the shore. The flat fishes
sleep in the sand; they are recognized by their form
in the sand, and are taken by striking them with a spear
with three points. The labrax, chrysophrys, cestreus,
and such-like fish are often taken with the same kind of
weapon while asleep in the day time, but if not taken then,
none of them can be captured with such a spear.

5. The selache sleep so soundly that they may be taken
with the hand; the dolphin, whale, and all that have a blow-hole,
sleep with this organ above the surface of the sea, so
that they can breathe, while gently moving their fins, and
some persons have even heard the dolphin snore. The malacia
sleep in the same manner as fish, and so do the malacostraca.
It is evident from the following considerations
that insects sleep; for they evidently remain at rest without
motion; this is particularly plain in bees, for they remain
quiet, and cease to hum during the night. This is also evident
from those insects with which we are most familiar,
for they not only remain quiet during the night because
they cannot see distinctly, for all creatures with hard eyes
have indistinct vision, but they seem no less quiet when
the light of a lamp is set before them.

6. Man sleeps the most of all animals. Infants and
young children do not dream at all, but dreaming begins in
most at about four or five years old. There have been men
and women who have never dreamt at all; sometimes such
persons, when they have advanced in age, begin to dream;
this has preceded a change in their body, either for death
or infirmity. This, then, is the manner of sensation, sleep
and wakefulness.

[Pg 99]

Chapter XI.

1. In some animals the sexes are distinct, in others they are
not so, these are said to beget and be with young by a likeness
to other creatures. There is neither male nor female
in fixed animals, nor in testacea. In the malacia and
malacostraca there are male and female individuals, and in
all animals with feet, whether they have two or four, which
produce either an animal, an egg, or a worm from coition.

2. In other kinds the sexes are either single or not single;
as in all quadrupeds there is the male and female, in the
testacea it is not so, for as some vegetables are fertile and
others barren, so it is in these. Among insects and fishes
there are some that have no differences of this kind, as the
eel is neither male nor female, nor is anything produced
from them.

3. But those persons who say that some eels appear to
have creatures like worms, of the size of a hair, attached to
them, speak without observation, not having seen how they
really are; for none of these creatures are viviparous without
being first oviparous, none of them have ever been observed
to contain ova; those that are viviparous have the
embryo attached to the uterus, and not to the abdomen, for
there it would be digested like food. The distinction made
between the so-called male and female eel that the male has
a larger and longer head, and that the head of the female
is smaller, and more rounded, is a generic, and not a sexual
distinction.

4. There are some fish called epitragiæ, and among fresh-water
fish the cyprinus and balagrus are of the same nature,
which never have ova or semen; those which are firm and
fat, and have a small intestine, appear to be the best.
There are creatures, such as the testacea, and plants, which
beget, and produce young, but have no organ of coition;
and so also in fishes the psetus,[156] erythrhinus,[157] and the channa.
All these appear to have ova.

5. In sanguineous animals with feet that are not oviparous,
the males are generally larger and longer lived than
[Pg 100]
the females, except the hemionus, but the females of this
animal are both larger and longer lived; in oviparous and
viviparous animals, as in fish and insects, the females are
larger than the males, as the serpent, phalangium,[158] ascalabotes,[159]
and frog; in fish likewise, as in most of the small
gregarious selache, and all that inhabit rocks.

6. It is evident that female fishes have longer lives than
males, because females are caught of a greater age than the
males; the upper and more forward parts of all animals
are larger and stronger, and more firmly built in the male;
the hinder and lower parts in the female. This is the case
in the human subject, and all viviparous animals with feet:
the female is less sinewy, the joints are weaker, and the
hairs finer, in those with hair; in those without hair, its
analogues are of the same nature; the female has softer
flesh and weaker knees than the male, the legs are slighter;
the feet of females are more graceful, in all that have
these members.

7. All females, also, have a smaller and more acute voice
than the males, but in oxen the females utter a deeper sound
than the males; the parts denoting strength, as the teeth,
tusks, horns, and spurs, and such other parts, are possessed
by the males, but not by the females, as the roe-deer has
none, and the hens of some birds with spurs have none;
the sow has no tusks: in some animals they exist in both
sexes, only stronger and longer in the males, as the horns of
bulls are stronger than those of cows.

BOOK THE FIFTH.

Chapter I.

1. We have hitherto treated of the external and internal
parts of all animals, of their senses, voice, and sleep, with
the distinctions between the males and females; it remains
to treat of their generation, speaking first of those which
come first in order, for they are many, and have numerous
varieties, partly dissimilar, and partly like each other. And
we will pursue the same order in considering them as we
did before in their division into classes; we commenced our
consideration by treating of the parts in man, but now he
must be treated of last, because he is much more intricate.

2. We shall begin with the testacea, and after these treat
of the malacostraca, and the others in the order of their
succession. These are the malacia and insects, next to
these fishes, both viviparous and oviparous; next to them
birds, and afterwards we must treat of animals with feet,
whether viviparous or oviparous; some viviparous creatures
have four feet, man alone has two feet. The nature of animals
and vegetables is similar, for some are produced from
the seed of other plants, and others are of spontaneous
growth, being derived from some origin of a similar nature.
Some of them acquire their nourishment from the soil,
others from different plants, as it was observed when treating
of plants.

3. So also some animals are produced from animals of
a similar form, the origin of others is spontaneous, and
not from similar forms; from these and from plants are
divided those which spring from putrid matter, this is the
case with many insects; others originate in the animals
themselves, and from the excrementitious matter in their
parts; those which originate from similar animals, and have
both the sexes are produced from coition, but of the class of
fishes there are some neither male nor female, these belong
to the same class among fishes, but to different genera, and
some are quite peculiar. In some there are females but no
males, by these the species is continued as in the hypenemia
among birds.

[Pg 102]

4. All these among birds are barren, (for nature is
able to complete them as far as the formation of an egg,)
unless persons suppose that there is another method of
communicating the male influence, concerning which we
shall speak more plainly hereafter. In some fish, after the
spontaneous production of the ovum, it happens that living
creatures are produced, some by themselves, others by the
aid of the male. The manner in which this is done will be
made plain in a future place, for nearly the same things take
place in the class of birds.

5. Whatever are produced spontaneously in living creatures,
in the earth, or in plants, or in any part of them,
have a distinction in the sexes, and by the union of the
sexes something is produced, not the same in any respect,
but an imperfect animal, as nits are produced from lice,
and from flies and butterflies are produced egg-like
worms, from which neither similar creatures are produced,
nor any other creature, but such things only. First of
all, then, we will treat of coition, and of the animals that
copulate, and then of others, and successively of that which
is peculiar to each, and that which is common to them all.

Chapter II.

1. Those animals in which there is a distinction of the
sexes use sexual intercourse, but the mode of this intercourse
is not the same in all, for all the males of sanguineous
animals with feet have an appropriate organ, but they do
not all approach the female in the same manner, but those
which are retromingent, as the lion, the hare, and the lynx,
unite backwards, and the female hare often mounts upon
the male; in almost all the rest the mode is the same, for
most animals perform the act of intercourse in the same way,
the male mounting upon the female; and birds perform
it in this way only.

2. There are, however, some variations even among birds;
for the male sometimes unites with the female as she sits
upon the ground, as the bustard and domestic fowl: in
others, the female does not sit upon the ground, as the
crane; for in these birds the male unites with the female
standing up; and the act is performed very quickly, as in
sparrows. Bears lie down during the act of intercourse,
[Pg 103]
which is performed in the same manner as in those that
stand on their feet, the abdomen of the male being placed
upon the back of the female: in the hedgehogs, the abdomens
of both sexes are in contact.

3. Among the large animals, the roe-deer seldom admits
the stag, nor the cow the bull, on account of the hardness
of the penis; but the female receives the male by submission.
This has been observed to take place in tame
deer. The male and female wolf copulate like dogs. Cats
do not approach each other backwards, but the male stands
erect, and the female places herself beneath him. The females
are very lascivious, and invite the male, and make a
noise during the intercourse.

4. Camels copulate as the female is lying down, and the
male embraces and unites with her, not backwards, but like
other animals. They remain in intercourse a whole day.
They retire into a desert place, and suffer no one to approach
them but their feeder. The penis of the camel is so
strong, that bowstrings are made of it. Elephants also
retire into desert places for intercourse, especially by the
sides of rivers which they usually frequent. The female
bends down and divides her legs, and the male mounts upon
her. The seal copulates like retromingent animals, and is a
long while about it, like dogs. The males have a large penis.

Chapter III.

1. Oviparous quadrupeds with feet copulate in the same
manner: in some, the male mounts upon the female, like
viviparous animals, as in the marine and land turtle, for
they have an intromittent organ by which they adhere together,
as the trygon and frog, and all such animals.

2. But the apodous long animals, as serpents and murænæ,
are folded together, with the abdomens opposite, and
serpents roll themselves together so closely, that they seem
to be but one serpent with two heads. The manner of the
whole race of saurians is the same, for they unite together
in the same kind of fold.

Chapter IV.

1. All fish, except the flat selache, perform the act of
intercourse by approaching each other with their abdomens
[Pg 104]
opposite: but the flat fish, with tails, as the batos, trygon,
and such like, not only approach each other, but the male
applies his abdomen to the back of the female, in all those
in which the thickness of the tail offers no impediment.
But the rhinæ, and those which have a large tail, perform
the act by the friction of their abdomens against each other,
and some persons say that they have seen the male selache
united to the back of the female, like dogs.

2. In all those that resemble the selache, the female is
larger than the male; and in nearly all fish the female is
larger than the male. The selache are those which have
been mentioned; and the bos, lamia, æetus, narce, batrachus,
and all the galeode. All the selache have been frequently
observed to conduct themselves in this way. In all
viviparous creatures the act occupies a longer time than in
the oviparous. The dolphin and the cetacea also perform
the act in the same manner, for the male attaches himself to
the female for neither a very long, nor a very short time.

3. The males of some of the fish which resemble the
selache differ from the females, in having two appendages
near the anus, which the females have not, as in the galeodea;
for these appendages exist in them all. Neither fish
nor any other apodal animal has testicles, but the males,
both of serpents and of fish, have two passages, which become
full of a seminal fluid at the season of coition; and all
of them project a milky fluid. These passages unite in one,
as they do in birds; for birds have two internal testes, and
so have all oviparous animals with feet. In the act of
coition this single passage passes to, and is extended upon
the pudendum and receptacle of the female.

4. In viviparous animals with feet, the external passage
for the semen and the fluid excrement is the same: internally
these passages are distinct, as I said before in describing
the distinctive parts of animals. In animals which
have no bladder, the anus is externally united with the
passage of the semen, internally the passages are close
together; and this is the same in both sexes: for none
of them have a bladder, except the tortoise. The female of
this animal, though furnished with a bladder, has but one
passage; but the tortoise is oviparous.

5. The sexual intercourse of the oviparous fish is less evident,
[Pg 105]
wherefore many persons suppose that the female is impregnated
by swallowing the semen of the male; and they have
been frequently observed to do this. This is seen at the
season of coition, when the females follow the males, and are
observed to strike them on the abdomen with their mouths,
this causes the males to eject their semen more rapidly.
The males do the same with the ova of the females, for they
swallow them as they are extruded, and the fish are born
from those ova which remain.

6. In Phœnicia they use each sex for capturing the other;
for having taken the male cestreus, they entice the females
with it, and so enclose them in a net. They use the females
in the same way for catching the males. The frequent observation
of these circumstances appears to corroborate this
manner of intercourse among them. Quadrupeds also do
the same thing, for at the season of coition both sexes emit
a fluid, and smell to each other’s pudenda.

7. And if the wind blows from the cock partridge to
the hen, these last are impregnated; and often, if they hear
the voice of the cock when they are inclined for sexual
intercourse, or if he flies over them, they become pregnant
from the breath of the cock. During the act of intercourse,
both sexes open their mouths, and protrude their tongues.
The true intercourse of oviparous fish is rarely observed,
from the rapidity with which the act is accomplished; for
their intercourse has been observed to take place in the
manner described.

Chapter V.

1. All the malacia, as the polypus, sepia, and teuthis,
approach each other in the same manner, for they are united
mouth to mouth; the tentacula of one sex being adapted to
those of the other; for when the polypus has fixed the part
called the head upon the ground, it extends its tentacula,
which the other adapts to the expansion of its tentacula,
and they make their acetabula answer together. And some
persons say that the male has an organ like a penis in that
one of its tentacula which contains the two largest acetabula.
This organ is sinewy, as far as the middle of the tentaculum,
and they say that it is all inserted into the nostril
of the female.

[Pg 106]

2. The sepia and loligo swim about coiled together in this
way, and with their mouths and tentacula united, they swim
in contrary directions to each other. They adapt the organ
called the nostril of the male to the similar organ in the
female; and the one swims forwards, and the other backwards.
The ova of the female are produced in the part
called the physeter, by means of which some persons say
that they copulate.

Chapter VI.

1. The malacostraca, as the carabi, astaci, carides, and such
like perform the act of intercourse like the retromingent
animals, the one lying upon its back, and the other placing
its tail upon it. They copulate on the approach of spring,
near the land; for their sexual intercourse has often been
observed, and sometimes when the figs begin to ripen.

2. The astaci and the carides perform the act in the same
manner; but the carcini approximate the fore part of their
bodies to each other, and adapt also the folds of their tails to
each other. First of all, the smaller carcinus mounts from
behind, and when he has mounted, the greater one turns
on its side. In no other respect does the female differ
from the male, but that the tail, which is folded on the
body, is larger and more distant, and more thick set with
appendages: upon this the ova are deposited, and the excrement
ejected. Neither sex is furnished with an intromittent
organ.

Chapter VII.

1. Insects approach each other from behind, and the
smaller one subsequently mounts upon the larger. The
male is always the smaller. The female, which is below,
inserts a member into the male, which is above, and not the
male into the female, as in other animals. In some kinds
this organ appears large in proportion to the size of the
body, especially in those that are small, in others it is less.
The organ may be plainly discerned if two flies are separated
while in the act of coition. They are separated from
each other with difficulty, for the act of intercourse in such
animals occupies a long time. This may be plainly discerned
by common observation, as in the fly and cantharis.

2. All adopt the same method, the fly, cantharis, spondyla[160],
[Pg 107]
phalangium, or any other insect that copulates. All
the phalangia that spin a web unite in the following manner.
The female draws a filament from the middle of the web, and
then the male draws it back again, and this they do a great
many times till they meet, and are united backwards, for
this kind of copulation suits them on account of the size
of their abdomen. The copulation of animals is accomplished
in this manner.

Chapter VIII.

1. All animals have their proper season and age for coition;
the nature of most creatures requires them to have intercourse
with each other when winter is turning into summer.
This is the spring season, in which all animals with wings,
feet, or fins, are incited to coition. Some copulate and produce
their young in the autumn and winter, as some aquatic
and winged creatures. Mankind are ready at all seasons,
and so are many other animals which associate with man;
this arises from greater warmth, and better food, and is
usual among those which are pregnant only for a short time,
as the hog, dog, and those birds which have frequent
broods. Many animals appear to adapt the season of coition
to that which they consider the best for the nurture of
their young.

2. Among mankind the male is more disposed for sexual
intercourse in the winter, and the female in the summer.
Birds, as I have observed, generally pair in the spring and
summer, except the halcyon. This bird hatches its young
about the time of the winter solstice. Whereupon fine days
occurring at this season are called halcyon days, seven before
the solstice and seven after it. As Simonides also writes
in his poems, “as when in the winter months Jupiter prepares
fourteen days, which mortals call the windless season,
the sacred nurse of the variegated halcyon.”

3. These fine days take place wherever it happens that
the solstice turns to the south, when the pleiades set in the
north. The bird is said to occupy seven days in building
its nest, and the other seven in bringing out and nursing
its young. The halcyon days are not always met with in this
[Pg 108]
country at the time of the solstice, but they always occur in
the Sicilian Sea. The halcyon produces five eggs.

4. The æthuia and the larus hatch their young among the
rocks on the sea-side, and produce two or three, the larus
during the summer, and the æthuia at the beginning of the
spring, immediately after the equinox; it sets upon its eggs
like other birds; neither of these kinds conceal themselves.
The halcyon is the rarest of all, for it is only seen at the
season of the setting of the pleiades, and at the solstice, and
it first appears at seaports, flying as much as round a ship,
and immediately vanishing away. Stesichorus also speaks
of it in the same manner.

5. The nightingale produces her young at the beginning
of summer. She produces five or six eggs. She conceals
herself from the autumn to the beginning of spring. Insects
copulate and produce their young during the winter whenever
the days are fine, and the wind in the south, at least
such of them as do not conceal themselves, as the fly and
ant. Wild animals produce their young once a year, unless,
like the hare, they breed while they are nursing their young.

Chapter IX.

1. Fish also generally breed once a year, as the chyti. All
those which are caught in a net are called chyti; the thynnus,
palamis, cestreus, chalais, colias, chromis, psetta, and
such like, the labrax is an exception, for this alone of them
all breeds twice a year, and the second fry of these are much
weaker. The trichias[161] and rock fish breed twice, the trigla is
the only one that breeds three times a year. This is shewn
by the fry, which appear three times at certain places.

2. The scorpius breeds twice, and so does the sargus, in
spring and autumn, the salpa once only in the spring. The
thynnis breeds once, but as some of the fry are produced
at first, and others afterwards, it appears to breed twice.
The first fry makes its appearance in the month of December,
after the solstice, the second in the spring. The male
thynnis is different from the female, for the female has a fin
under the abdomen, called aphareus, which the male has not.

3. Among the selachea, the rhine alone breeds twice in
the year; at the beginning of the autumn, and at the period
[Pg 109]
of the setting of the Pleiades. The young are, however, better
in the autumn. At each breeding season it produces seven or
eight. Some of the galei, as the asterias, seem to produce
their ova twice every month. This arises from all the ova
not being perfected at once.

4. Some fish produce ova at all seasons of the year, as the
muræna: for this fish produces many ova, and the fry
rapidly increase in size, as do those also of the hippurus,[162] for
these, from being very small, rapidly increase to a great
size; but the muræna produces young at all seasons, the
hippurus in the spring. The smyrus differs from the muræna,
for the muræna is throughout variegated and weak.
The smyrus is of one colour, and strong; its colour is that
of the pine tree, and it has teeth both internally and externally.
They say that these are the male and the female,
as in others. These creatures go upon the land, and are
often taken.

5. The growth of all fish is rapid, and not the least so in
the coracinus among small fish. It breeds near the land,
in thick places full of seaweed. The orphos also grows
rapidly. The pelamis and thynnus breed in Pontus, and
nowhere else. The cestreus, chrysophrys, and labrax, breed
near the mouths of rivers. The orcynes and scorpides, and
many other kinds, in the sea.

6. Most fish breed in March, April, and May; a few
in the autumn, as the salpe, sargus, and all the others of
this kind a little before the autumnal equinox; and the
narce and rhine also. Some breed in the winter and summer,
as I before observed, as the labrax, cestreus, and belona in
the winter; the thynnis in June, about the summer solstice:
it produces, as it were, a bag, containing many
minute ova. The rhyas also breeds in the summer. The
chelones among the cestræi begin to breed in the month of
December, and so does the sargus, the myxon, as it is
called, and the cephalus. They go with young thirty
days. Some of the cestrei do not originate in coition, but
are produced from mud and sand.

7. The greater number of them contain ova in the
spring, but some, as I observed, in the summer, autumn,
and winter. But this does not take place in all alike,
[Pg 110]
nor singly, nor in every kind, as it does in most fish
which produce their young in the spring: nor do they
produce as many ova at other seasons. But it must
not escape our notice, that as different countries make a
great difference in plants and animals, not only in the habit
of their body, but also in the frequency of their sexual intercourse
and production of young; so different localities
make a great difference in fish, not only in their size, and
habit of their body, but in their young, and the frequency
or rarity of their sexual intercourse, and of their offspring
in this place or that.

Chapter X.

1. The malacia breed in the spring, and first of all the marine
sepia, though this one breeds at all seasons. It produces
its ova in fifteen days. When the ova are extruded, the
male follows, and ejects his ink upon them, when they become
hard. They go about in pairs. The male is more
variegated than the female, and blacker on the back. The
sexes of the polypus unite in the winter, the young are produced
in the spring, when these creatures conceal themselves
for two months. It produces an ovum like long hair, similar
to the fruit of the white poplar. The fecundity of this animal
is very great, for a great number of young are produced
from its ova. The male differs from the female in having a
longer head, and the part of the tentaculum which the fishermen
call the penis is white. It incubates upon the ova
it produces, so that it becomes out of condition, and is not
sought after at this season.

2. The purpuræ produce their ova in the spring, the
ceryx at the end of the winter; and, on the whole, the
testacea appear to contain ova in the spring and autumn,
except the eatable echini. These principally produce their
young at the same seasons, but they always contain some
ova, and especially at the full and new moon, and in fine
weather, but those which live in the Euripus of the Pyrrhæi
are better in winter. They are a small kind but full of ova.
All the cochleæ appear to contain ova at the same season.

Chapter XI.

1. The undomesticated birds, as it was observed, generally
pair and breed once a-year. The swallows and cottyphus
[Pg 111]
breed twice, but the first brood of the cottyphus is killed
by the cold, for it is the earliest breeder of all birds. It
is able, however, to bring up the other brood. But the
domestic birds, and those capable of domestication, breed
frequently, as pigeons during the whole summer, and domestic
fowls. For these birds have sexual intercourse, and
produce eggs all the year round, except at the winter
solstice.

2. There are many kinds of pigeons, for the peleias and
peristera are different. The peleias is the smaller, but
the peristera is more readily tamed. The peleias is black
and small, and has red and rough feet, for which reason
it is never domesticated. The phatta is the largest of
the tribe, the next is the œnas, which is a little larger than
the peristera, the trygon is the least of all. If the peristera
is supplied with a warm place and appropriate food, it will
breed and bring up its young at any season of the year. If
it is not properly supplied, it will only breed in the summer.
Its young ones are best during the spring and autumn,
those produced in the hot weather in summer are the worst.

Chapter XII.

1. Animals also differ in the age at which sexual intercourse
commences. For in the first place the period at
which the spermatic fluid begins to be secreted, and the age
of puberty is not the same, but different; for the young of
all animals are barren, or if they do possess the power of
reproduction, their offspring are weak and small. This is
very conspicuous in mankind, and in viviparous quadrupeds
and birds, for in the one the offspring, in the other the
eggs, are small. The age of puberty is nearly the same in
the individuals of each kind, unless any alteration takes
place, either as ominous, or from an injury done to their
nature.

2. In men this period of life is shown by the change of
voice, and not only by the size but by the form of the
pudendum and of the breasts in women, but especially by
the growth of hair on the pubes. The secretion of the
spermatic fluid commences about the age of fourteen, the
power of reproduction at twenty-one. Other animals have
no hair on the pubes, for some have no hair at all, and
[Pg 112]
others have none upon their under side, or less than on
their upper side, but the change of the voice is conspicuous
in some of them. And in others different parts of the body
signify the period of the formation of the semen, and of the
power of reproduction.

3. In almost all animals the voice of the female and of
the young is more acute than that of the male and the older
animals, for even the stags have a deeper voice than their
females. The males utter their cry at the season of copulation,
the females when they are alarmed. The voice of the
female is short, that of the male longer. And the barking of
old dogs is also deeper than of young ones, and the voice of
the horse also varies. The females utter a little small cry
as soon as they are born, and the males do the same, but
their voice is deeper than that of the female, and as they
grow older, it still increases. When they are two years
old, and reach puberty, the male utters a great deep voice,
that of the female is greater and clearer than it was at first;
this continues till they are twenty years old at the outside,
and after that the voice, both of the male and female, becomes
weaker.

4. For the most part, then, as we observed, the voice of
the male differs from that of the female in depth, in those
animals which utter a lengthened sound. There are, however,
some exceptions, as oxen; for in these animals the
voice of the female is deeper than that of the male, and the
voice of the calf than that of the full-grown animal; wherefore
also in the castrated animals, the voice changes the
other way, for it becomes more like that of the female.

5. The following are the ages at which animals acquire
the power of reproduction. The sheep and goat arrive at
puberty within a year after they are born, and especially
the goat, and the males as well as the females, but the offspring
of these males and of the others is different.
For the males are better the second year than when they
become older. In hogs, the male and female unite at eight
months old, and the female produces her young when she is
a year old, for this agrees with the period of gestation.
The male reaches puberty at eight months old, but his offspring
are useless till he is a year old. But these periods,
as we have said, are not always the same, for swine will
[Pg 113]
sometimes copulate when they are four months old, so as to
have young and nurse them at six months old, and boars
sometimes reach puberty at ten months old, and continue
good to three years old.

6. The bitch reaches puberty within a year after birth,
and so does the dog, and sometimes this takes place at
the end of eight months, but more frequently in the
male than in the female. The period of gestation is
sixty days, or one or two, or perhaps three days more, but
never less than sixty days, or if they produce young in a
less time, it never comes to perfection. The bitch is ready
for sexual intercourse again in six months, but never sooner.
The horse reaches puberty in both sexes at two years old,
and is capable of reproduction, but its offspring at that age
are small and weakly. For the most part, sexual intercourse
begins at three years of age, and the colts continue to
improve from that period till they are twenty years old.
The male is useful till he is thirty years old, so that he can
beget during almost the whole of his life, for the horse
generally lives five-and-thirty years, and the mare more than
forty, and a horse has been known to live seventy-five years.

7. The ass reaches puberty in both sexes at the age of
thirty months; they rarely, however, produce young till
they are three years, or three years and six months old.
But it has been known to be pregnant and bring up its
young within the year. The cow also has been known to
produce young and rear it within the year after birth, which
grew to the ordinary size, and no more.[163]

8. These are the periods of puberty in these animals.
The seventieth year in man, and the fiftieth in woman,
is the latest period of reproduction, and this happens
rarely, for only a few have had children at this time of life.
Sixty-five is generally the boundary in one sex, and forty-five
in the other. The sheep produces young till it is eight
years old, and, if well treated, until it is eleven, though the
act of copulation is continued in both sexes during the
whole period of life.

9. Fat goats are rarely productive, wherefore they compare
barren vines with barren goats, but they are productive
[Pg 114]
when they are lean. The rams copulate with the
old sheep first, but they do not follow after the younger;
and the younger, as I before observed, produce a smaller
offspring than the older.

10. A wild boar will beget till he is three years old,
but the progeny of older animals is inferior; for he has
not the same power or strength. He generally goes to the
female when full of food, and without having been to
another female, or, if not, the act of coition is of shorter
duration, and the progeny smaller. The sow produces the
smallest number of pigs at her first litter, but at the second
they are more flourishing. She also produces young when
old, but the act of coition is longer. At fifteen years old,
she no longer produces young, but becomes fierce.

11. If well-fed, she will be more ready for sexual intercourse,
whether young or old; and, if rapidly fattened
when pregnant, she has less milk after parturition. As
regards the age of the parent, the young of those in the
prime of their age are the best, and those that are born at
the beginning of winter. The worst are those born in the
summer, for they are small, and thin, and weak. If the
male is well fed, he is ready for sexual intercourse at all
seasons, by day as well as by night; but if not well fed, he
is most ready in the morning, and as he grows old, he becomes
less disposed for it, as was said before. And it frequently
happens that those which are impotent, through
age or weakness, and cannot copulate readily, will approach
the female as she lies down tired with long standing. The
sow generally becomes pregnant when she hangs down
her ears in her heats; if she is not pregnant, she becomes
heated again.

12. Bitches do not copulate during the whole of their
life, but only to a certain period. Their coition and pregnancy
generally takes place till they are twelve years old,
but both males and females have been known to perform
the act of coition at eighteen and even twenty years of
age; but old age takes away from both sexes the power of
reproduction, as in other animals.

13. The camel is retroningent, and performs the act of
intercourse in the manner already described; the period of
its coition in Arabia is in the month of September; the
[Pg 115]
female goes with young twelve months, and produces one
foal, for the animal is one of those which produce but
one. Both the male and female arrive at puberty at the
age of three years, and the female is ready for the male
again at the end of a year after parturition.

14. The elephant arrives at puberty, the earliest at ten
years of age, the latest at fifteen, and the male at five or six
years old. The season for the intercourse of the sexes is
in the spring: and the male is ready again at the end of
three years, but he never touches again a female whom he
has once impregnated. Her period of gestation is two years,
and then she produces one calf, for the elephant belongs to
the class of animals which have but one young one at a
time. The young one is as large as a calf of two or three
months old. This, then, is the nature of the sexual intercourse
of those animals which perform this function.

Chapter XIII.

1. We must now treat of the mode of reproduction, both of
those animals which use sexual intercourse, and those which
do not; and, first of all, we will speak of the testacea, for
this is the only entire class which is not reproduced by
sexual intercourse. The purpuræ collect together in the
spring, and produce what is called their nidamental capsules
(melicera), for it is like honey-comb, though not so deeply
cut, but, as it were, made up of the white pods of vetches.
These capsules have neither opening nor perforation, nor are
the purpuræ produced from them; but both these and other
testacea are produced from mud and putrefaction. But
this substance is an excrementitious matter both in the purpura
and the ceryx, for these last also produce similar capsules.

2. The testacea which produce these capsules are generated
in the same way as the rest of their class, but more
readily when there are homogeneous particles pre-existing
among them; for, when they deposit their nidamental capsules,
they emit a clammy mucus, from which the scales of
the capsules are formed. When all these have been deposited,
they emit upon the ground a sort of chyle, and small
purpuræ spring up upon the same spot and adhere to the
larger purpuræ, though some of these can hardly be distinguished
[Pg 116]
by their form. But if they are taken before
the breeding season, they will sometimes breed in the
baskets, not indeed anywhere, but they collect together
like they do in the sea, and the narrow limits of their place
of captivity make them hang together like bunches of fruit.

3. There are many kinds of purpuræ, some of which are
large, as those which are found near Sigeum and Lectum;
and others are small, as those in the Euripus and on the
Carian coast. Those found in gulfs are large and rough.
Most of them contain a black pigment; in others it is red,
and the quantity of it small. Some of the largest weigh
as much as a mina. Near the shore and on the coast they
are small, and the pigment is red. Those which are natives
of the north contain a black pigment; in those of the south
it is red, generally speaking.

4. They are taken in the spring, about the time that they
deposit their capsules, but they are never taken during the
dog-days, for then they do not feed, but conceal themselves
and get out of the way. The pigment is contained between
the mecon and the neck. The union of these parts is thick,
and the colour is like a white membrane; this is taken
away. When this is bruised, the pigment wets and stains
the hand. Something resembling a vein passes through it,
and this appears to be the pigment; the nature of the rest
resembles alum.[164] The pigment is the worst at the period of
depositing their nidamental capsules.

5. The small ones are pounded up, shells and all, for
it is not easy to separate them; but they separate the
larger kinds from the shells, and then extract the pigment.
For this purpose the mecon is divided from
the neck, for the pigment lies above the part called the
stomach, and when this is taken away, they are divided
asunder. They are careful to bruise them while alive, for
if they die before they are cut up, they vomit up the pigment;
for this reason they keep them in the baskets till
a sufficient number is collected, and there is time to procure
the pigment.

6. The ancients did not let down or fasten any basket-net
to their baits, so that it often happened that the purpura
fell off as they were drawn up; but at the present time they
[Pg 117]
use basket-nets, in order that if the purpura should fall off,
it may not be lost. They are most likely to fall off when
full, but when empty it is difficult to draw them from
the bait. These are the peculiarities of the purpura. The
nature of the ceryx is the same as that of the purpura, and
so are their seasons.

7. They both have opercula, and so have all turbinated
shell-fish, from the period of their birth. They feed by forcing
out their tongue, as it is called, beneath the operculum:
the purpura has a tongue larger than a finger, with which it
feeds upon and pierces the conchylia, and even the shells of
its own species. Both the purpura and the ceryx are long-lived,
for the purpura lives six years, and its annual increase
is seen in the divisions on the helix of its shell.

8. The mya also deposits nidamental capsules; those
which are called limnostrea are the first to originate in
muddy places, but the conchæ, chemæ, solens, and pectens
find their subsistence in sandy shores; the pinnæ grow up
from their byssus both in sandy and muddy shores. The
pinnæ always contain a pinnophylax, either like a small caris
or cancer, and soon die when this is extracted. On the whole,
all the testacea are produced spontaneously in mud different
kinds originating in different sorts of mud: the ostrea is
found in mud, the conchæ and others that have been mentioned
in sand. The tethya, balanus, and others which live
on the surface, as the patella and nerita, originate in holes
in the rocks. All these reach maturity very soon, especially
the purpuræ and pectens, for they are matured in one
year.

9. Very small white cancri are produced in some of the
testacea, especially in the myæ that inhabit muddy places,
and next to this in the pinnæ those which are called pinnoteræ;
they occur also in the pectens and limnostrea. These
animals apparently never grow; and the fishermen say that
they are produced at the same time as the creatures they
inhabit. The pectens disappear for some time in the sand,
and so do the purpuræ. The ostrea (bivalves) are produced
in the manner described, for some of them originate in
shallow water, others near the shore, or among rocks, or in
rough hard places, or in sand; and some have the power
of locomotion, others have not.

[Pg 118]

10. Among those that are not locomotive, the pinnæ are
fixed; the solens and conchæ remain on one spot, though
not fixed, and do not survive separation from their home.
The nature of the aster[165] is so hot, that if it is captured
immediately after swallowing anything, its food is found
digested; and they say that it is very troublesome in the
Pyrrhæan Euripus. Its form is like the paintings of a
star. The creatures called pneumones are spontaneously
produced. The shell which painters use is very thick, and
the pigment is produced on the outside of the shell; they
are principally found in the neighbourhood of Caria.

11. The carcinium also originates in earth and mud, and
afterwards makes its way into an empty shell, and when it
grows too large for that, it leaves it for a larger one, as the
shell of the nerita, strombus, and such like; it frequently
occurs in the small ceryx. When it has entered the shell,
it carries it about and lives in it, except that as it grows it
migrates into a larger shell.

Chapter XIV.

1. The nature of the testacea is the same as that of creatures
without shells, as the cnidæ[166] and sponges, which inhabit
the holes in rocks. There are two kinds of cnidæ, some
which live in holes in the rocks, and cannot be separated
from them, and other migrating species which live upon the
smooth flat surface of the rocks. (The patella also is free
and locomotive.) In the interior of the sponges are found
the creatures called pinnophylaces, and the interior is closed
with a net like a spider’s web, and small fish are captured
by opening and closing this web, for it opens as they approach,
and closes upon them when they have entered.

2. There are three kinds of sponges; one of them is thin,
the other is thick, and the third, which is called the
Achillean sponge, is slender, compact, and very strong; it
is placed beneath helmets and thigh-pieces, for the sake of
deadening the sound of blows; this kind is very rare. Among
the compact kinds, those which are very hard and rough are
called tragi. They all grow upon the rock or near the
shore, and obtain their food from the mud. This is evident,
for they are full of mud when they are captured. This is
[Pg 119]
the case with all other fixed things, that they derive their
food from the spot to which they are attached.

3. The compact species are weaker than those which are
thin, because their point of attachment is smaller. It is
affirmed that the sponge possesses sensation; this is
a proof of it, that it contracts if it perceives any purpose
of tearing it up, and renders the task more difficult.
The sponge does the same thing when the winds and waves
are violent, that it may not lose its point of attachment.
There are some persons who dispute this, as the natives of
Torona. The sponge is inhabited by worms and other living
creatures, which the rock-fish eat when the sponge is torn
up, as well as the remainder of its roots. But if the sponge
is broken off, it grows again, and is completed from the portion
that is left.

4. The thin sponges are the largest, and they are most
abundant on the Lycian coast; the compact sponges
are softer, and the Achillean are more harsh than the
others. On the whole, those that inhabit deep places with
a mild temperature are the softest, for wind and cold
weather harden them, as they do other growing things, and
stop their increase. For this reason the sponges of the
Hellespont are rough and compact; and, altogether, those
beyond Malea, and those on this side, differ in softness and
hardness.

5. Neither should the heat be very great, for the sponge becomes
rotten, like plants, wherefore those near the shore are
the best, especially if the water is deep near the land, for the
temperature is moderated by the depth. When alive, before
they are washed, they are black. Their point of attachment
is neither single nor dispersed over the whole surface,
for there are empty passages between the points of attachment.
Something like a membrane is extended over their
lower part, and the attachment is by several points; on the
upper part are other closed passages, and four or five which
are apparent. Wherefore some persons say that these are
the organs by which they take their food.

6. There is also another species called aplysia, because it
cannot be washed. This has very large passages; but the
other parts of the substance are quite compact. When cut
open it is more compact and smooth than the sponge, and
[Pg 120]
the whole is like a lung; of all the sponges this one is confessed
to have the most sensation, and to be the most
enduring. They are plainly seen in the sea near the sponges,
for the other sponges are white as the mud settles down
upon them, but these are always black. This is the mode
of production in sponges and testacea.

Chapter XV.

1. Among the malacostraca the carabi are impregnated by
sexual intercourse, and contain their ova during three
months, May, June, and July. They afterwards deposit
them upon the hollow part of their folded tail, and their
ova grow like worms. The same thing takes place in the
malacia and oviparous fish, for their ova always grow.

2. The ova of the carabi are sandy, and divided into
eight parts; for a cartilaginous appendage, round which the
ova are attached, is united to each of the opercula at their
junction with the side; and the whole resembles a bunch of
grapes, for every one of the cartilaginous appendages is frequently
subdivided, and the divisions are apparent to any
one who will separate them, but when first seen they
appear to be united. Those ova which are in the centre
are larger than those which are contiguous to the perforation,
and the last are the least.

3. The smallest ova are as large as millet; the ova are
not continuous with the perforation, but in the middle.
For two divisions extend on each side, from the tail
and from the thorax, and this is also the line of junction for
the opercula. The ova, which are placed at the side, cannot
be enclosed, unless the extremity of the tail is drawn over
them; this, however, covers them like a lid.

4. The female, in depositing her ova, appears to collect
them on the cartilaginous appendages by means of
the broad part of the folded tail. She produces them
by pressing with her tail and bending her body. These
cartilaginous processes at the season of oviposition increase
in size, in order to become appropriate receptacles
for the ova. The ova are deposited on these processes,
as those of the sepia are deposited upon broken
pieces of wood or anything floating in the sea. This is the
[Pg 121]
manner of depositing them; but after they have been
ripened twenty days, they are cast off altogether in a mass,
as they appear when separated from the parent; in fifteen
days, at the outside, the carabi are produced from these ova,
and they are often taken off less than a finger’s length. The
ova are produced before Arcturus, and after Arcturus they
are cast off.

5. The cyphæ among the carides contain their ova about
four months. The carabi are found in rough and rocky places,
the astaci in those that are smooth; but neither of them
inhabit mud. For this cause the astaci are found in the
Hellespont and near Thasus; the carabi in the neighbourhood
of Sigeum and Athos. Fishermen, when they pursue
their calling in the open sea, distinguish the rough and
muddy places by the nature of the shore, and other signs.
In the spring and winter they come near the shore; in summer
time they go into deep water, sometimes for the sake of
warmth, and sometimes for the cold.

6. Those called arcti[167] breed nearly at the same time as the
carabi, wherefore they are most excellent in winter and in
spring before the breeding season, and they are worst after
they have deposited their ova. They change their shell in
the spring, like the serpent, which puts off its old age, as it
is called. Both the carabi and the carcini do this when they
are young, as well as afterwards. All the carabi are long-lived.

Chapter XVI.

1. The malacia produce a white ovum after sexual intercourse;
in the course of time this becomes sandy, like that
of the testacea. The polypus deposits its ova in holes or
pots, or any other hollow place; the ovum is like bunches of
the wild vine and of the white poplar, as was observed
before; when the ova are produced they remain suspended
from the hole in which they were deposited; and the ova
are so numerous, that when taken out they will fill a vessel
much larger than the head of the polypus in which they
were contained.

2. About fifty days afterwards the young polypi burst the
eggs and escape, like phalangia, in great numbers. The particular
shape of each limb is not distinct, though the general
[Pg 122]
form is plain. Many of them perish from their small size
and debility. Some have been observed so small that they
could not be distinguished, unless they were touched, when
they were seen to move.

3. The sepia also deposits eggs, which resemble large,
black, myrtle seeds. They are united together like a bunch
of fruit, and are enclosed in a substance which prevents
them from separating readily. The male emits his ink
upon them, a mucous fluid, which causes their slippery
appearance. The ova increase in this way; and when first
produced they are white, but when they have touched the
ink they become large and black. When the young sepia,
which is entirely formed of the internal white of the ovum,
is produced, it makes its way out by the rupture of the
membrane of the ovum.

4. The ovum which the female first produces is like hail,
and to this the young sepia is attached by the head, as birds
are attached to the abdomen. The nature of the umbilical
attachment has never been observed, except that as the sepia
increases the white always becomes less, and at last entirely
disappears, like the yolk of the eggs of birds.

5. The eyes are at first very large in these as in other
animals, as in the diagram. The ovum is seen at A, the eyes
at B and C, and the embryo sepia itself at D. The female
contains ova during the spring. The ova are produced in
fifteen days; and when the ova are produced they remain
for fifteen days longer like the small seeds of grapes, and
when these are ruptured the young sepias escape from the
inside. If a person divides them before they have reached
maturity, the young sepias emit their fœces and vary in
colour, and turn from white to red from alarm.

6. The crustaceans incubate upon their ova, which are
placed beneath them; but the polypus and sepia and such
like incubate upon their ova wherever they may be deposited,
and especially the sepia, for the female has often been
observed with her abdomen upon the ground, but the female
polypus has been observed sometimes placed upon her ova,
and sometimes upon her mouth, holding with her tentacula
over the hole in which the ova were deposited. The sepia
deposits her ova upon the ground among fuci and reeds,
or upon any thing thrown in the water, as wood, branches,
[Pg 123]
or stones; and the fishermen are careful to place branches
of trees in the water. Upon these they deposit their long
and united ova like branches of fruit.

7. The ova are deposited and produced by repeated
exertion, as if the parturition were accompanied with pain.
The teuthis oviposits in the sea. The ova, like those
of the sepia, are united together. Both the teuthus and
sepia are short-lived, for very few of them survive a year.
The same is the case with the polypus. Each egg produces
one small sepia, and so also in the teuthis. The male teuthus
differs from the female; for if the hair (branchia) are drawn
aside, the female will be seen to have two red substances
like mammæ, which the male does not possess. The sepia
also has the same sexual distinction, and is more variegated
than the female, as I observed before.

Chapter XVII.

1. It has already been observed that the male insects are
less than the female, and that the male mounts upon the
female; and the manner of their sexual intercourse has been
described, and the difficulty of separating them. Most of
them produce their young very soon after sexual intercourse.
All the kinds except some psychæ (butterflies and moths)
produce worms. These produce a hard substance, like the
seed of the cnecus,[168] which is fluid within. From the worm
an animal is produced, but not from a portion of it, as if it
were an ovum, but the whole grows and becomes an articulated
animal.

2. Some of them are produced from similar animals, as
phalangia and spiders from phalangia and spiders, and attelabi,[169]
locusts, and grasshoppers. Others do not originate in
animals of the same species, but their production is spontaneous,
for some of them spring from the dew which falls
upon plants. The origin of these is naturally in the spring,
though they often appear in the winter, if fine weather and
south winds occur for any length of time. Some originate
in rotten mud and dung; and others in the fresh wood of
plants or in dry wood; others among the hair of animals, or
in their flesh, or excrements, whether ejected, or still existing
in the body, as those which are called helminthes.

[Pg 124]

3. There are three kinds of these, the flat worms, the
round worms, and those which are called ascarides. From
these creatures nothing is produced; but the broad worm is
attached to the intestine, and produces something like the
seed of the colocynth, and this is used by physicians as a
proof of the presence of the worm.

4. Butterflies are produced from caterpillars; and these
originate in the leaves of green plants, especially the rhaphahus,
which some persons call crambe. At first they are
smaller than millet, afterwards they grow into little worms,
in three days they become small caterpillars, afterwards they
grow and become motionless, and change their form. In
this state the creature is called chrysalis. It has a hard
covering, but moves when it is touched. They are united
to something by weblike processes, and have no mouth nor
any other visible organ. After a short time the covering is
burst, and a winged animal escapes, which is called a butterfly.

5. At first, while in the caterpillar state, they take food
and evacuate fœces, but in the chrysalis state they do neither.
The same is the case with all other creatures which
originate in worms, and those which produce worms after
sexual intercourse, or even without this process; for the
offspring of bees, anthrenæ, and wasps, while they are young
worms, consume food and evacuate excrement, but when
from worms they receive their conformation they are called
nymphæ, and neither feed nor evacuate, but remain quiet in
their covering until they are grown. They then make their
escape by cutting through a place where the cell is fastened on.

6. The penia[170] and hypera[171] also are produced from a
kind of campe (caterpillar) which make a wave as they
walk, and as they advance bend the hinder extremity
up to that which has preceded. The creature produced
always derives its colour from the campe in which
it originates. A certain great worm, which has as it were
horns, and differs from others, at its first metamorphosis
produces a campe, afterwards a bombylius, and lastly
a necydalus. It passes through all these forms in six
months. From this animal some women unroll and separate
the bombycina (cocoons), and afterwards weave them. It is
[Pg 125]
said that this was first woven in the island of Cos by
Pamphila, the daughter of Plateos.

7. From the worms in dry wood the insects called carabi
are produced in the same manner; for at first they are immoveable
worms, and afterwards the carabi are produced by
the rupture of their case. The crambides originate in the
plant called crambe, and these also have wings, and the
prasocurides from the plant called prasum (onion). The
œstri are produced from the little flat creatures that are
found on the surface of rivers. Wherefore also they congregate
in the greatest numbers around the waters where
such animals are found. The kind of pygolampis which
has no wings originates in a small, black, hairy caterpillar.
These undergo another change, and turn into the winged
creatures called bostrychi.

8. The empides originate in ascarides, and the ascarides
originate in the mud of wells and running waters which flow
over an earthy bottom. At first the decaying mud acquires
a white colour, which afterwards becomes black, and finally
red. When this takes place, very small red creatures are
seen growing in it like fuci. At first these move about in a
mass, afterwards their connection is ruptured, the creatures
called ascarides are borne about in the water, after a few
days they stand erect in the water without motion and of a
hard texture, and subsequently the case is broken and the
empis sits upon it until either the sun or the wind enables
it to move, then it flies away.

9. The commencement of life in all other worms, and in
all creatures produced from worms, originates in the influence
of the sun and wind. The ascarides are produced in
greater numbers, and more quickly, where the various
matters are mixed together, as in the works conducted in
the Megarian territory, for putrefaction thus takes place
more readily. The autumnal season also is favourable to
their increase, for there is less moisture at that time of the
year. The crotones[172] originate in the agrostis, the melolonthæ
from the worms which originate in the dung of oxen
and asses.

10. The canthari which roll up dung, hide themselves in
it during the winter, and produce worms, which afterwards
[Pg 126]
become canthari; and from the worms which inhabit the
osprea,[173] winged creatures, like those already mentioned,
derive their existence. Flies originate in dung which has
been set apart, and those who are employed in this work
strive to separate the remainder which is mixed together,
for they say that the dung is thus brought to putrefaction.

11. The origin of these worms is very small; for first of
all a redness is perceived, and motion commences, as if they
were united together. The worm then again becomes still,
afterwards it moves, and then again is immoveable. From
this the worm is completed, and motion recommences under
the action of the sun and wind. The myops is produced in
wood. The orsodacnæ[174] from the metamorphosis of worms,
which originate on the stalks of the crambe. The cantharis
from worms which dwell on the fig tree, apium (pear tree),
and pitch tree, for there are worms on all these, and on the
cynacantha.[175] They assemble round strong smelling things
because they originate from them.

12. The conops springs from a worm which originates in the
thick part of vinegar; for there seem also to be worms in things
which are the farthest from putrefaction, as in snow which has
laid for some time: for after having laid, it becomes red,
wherefore, also, the worms are such and hairy. Those in the
snow in Media are large and white, and furnished with but
little power of motion. In Cyprus, when the manufacturers
of the stone called chalcitis burn it for many days in the
fire, a winged creature, something larger than a great fly,
is seen walking and leaping in the fire.

13. The worms perish when they are taken out of the
snow, and so do these creatures when taken from the fire.
And the salamander shews that it is possible for some
animal substances to exist in the fire, for they say that fire
is extinguished when this animal walks over it.

14. In the river Hypanis in the Cimmerian Bosphorus,
about the summer solstice, capsules larger than grape-seed
are floated down the river: when these are ruptured, a
four-footed, winged creature makes its escape, which lives
and flies about till the evening. As the sun descends, it
[Pg 127]
becomes emaciated, and is dead by sunset, having lived but
one day; for which cause it is called ephemerum. Most
animals which spring from caterpillars or worms, are first of
all enclosed in a web, and this is their nature.

15. The wasps which are called ichneumons, which are
smaller than the others, kill the phalangia, and carry them
to a wall, or some other place with a hole in it; and when
they have covered them over with mud, they oviposit there,
and the ichneumon wasps are produced from them. Many
of the coleoptera, and other small and anonymous creatures
make little holes in tombs or walls, and there deposit their
worms.

16. The period of reproduction, from its commencement
to its conclusion, is generally completed in three or four
weeks. In the worms and worm-like creatures, three weeks
are usually sufficient, and four weeks are usually enough
for those which are oviparous. In one week from their
sexual intercourse, the growth of the ovum is completed.
In the remaining three weeks, those that produce by generation,
hatch and bring forth their ova, as in the spiders,
and such like creatures. The metamorphoses generally
occupy three or four days, like the crisis of diseases. This
is the mode of generation in insects.

17. They die from the shrivelling of their limbs, as large
animals do of old age. Those which are furnished with
wings have these organs drawn together in autumn. The
myopes die from an effusion of water in their eyes.

Chapter XVIII.

1. All persons are not agreed as to the generation of bees,
for some say that they neither produce young, nor have
sexual intercourse; but that they bring their young from
other sources; and some say that they collect them from
the flowers of the calyntrus,[176] and others from the flower of
the calamus.[177] Others again, say that they are found in the
flowers of the olive, and produce this proof, that the swarms
are most abundant when the olives are fertile. Other persons
affirm that they collect the young of the drones from
any of the substances we have named, but that the rulers
(queens) produce the young of the bees.

[Pg 128]

2. There are two kinds of rulers, the best of these is red,
the other black and variegated: their size is double that of
the working bees; the part of the body beneath the cincture
is more than half of the whole length: by some they are
called the mother bees, as if they were the parents of the
rest; and they argue, that unless the ruler is present,
drones only are produced, and no bees. Others affirm that
they have sexual intercourse, and that the drones are males,
and the bees females.

3. The other bees originate in the cells of the comb, but
the rulers are produced in the lower part of the comb, six or
seven of them separated, opposite to the rest of the progeny.
The bees have a sting, which the drones have not:
the kings and rulers have a sting which they do not make
use of, and some persons suppose that they have none.

Chapter XIX.

1. There are several kinds of bees, the best are small, round,
and variegated: another kind is large, like the anthrene: a
third kind is called phor; this is black, and has a broad
abdomen: the drone is the fourth, and is the largest of all;
it has no sting, and is incapable of work, for which reason
people often wrap something round their hives, so that the
bees can enter, but the drones, being larger, cannot.

2. There are two kinds of rulers among bees, as I observed
before. In every hive there are several rulers, and not a
single one, for the hive perishes if there are not rulers
enough (not that they thus become anarchical, but, as they
say, because they are required for breeding the bees); if
there are too many rulers they perish, for thus they become
distracted.

3. If the spring is late, and drought and rusts are about,
the progeny is small. When the weather is dry, they make
honey. When it is damp, their progeny multiplies; for
which reason, the olives and the swarms of bees multiply at
the same time. They begin by making comb, in which they
place the progeny, which is deposited with their mouths, as
those say who affirm that they collect it from external
sources. Afterwards they gather the honey which is to be
their food, during the summer and the autumn; that which
is gathered in the autumn is the best.

[Pg 129]

4. Wax is made from flowers. They bring the material
of wax from the droppings of trees, but the honey falls from
the air, principally about the rising of the stars, and when
the rainbow rests upon the earth. Generally no honey is
produced before the rising of the Pleiades. We argue that
wax is made, as I said, from flowers, but that the bees do
not make honey, but simply collect that which falls; for
those who keep bees find the cells filled with honey in the
course of one or two days. In the autumn there are
flowers enough, but the bees make no honey, if that which
they have produced is taken away. But if one supply was
taken away, and they were in want of food, they would
make more if they procured it from flowers.

5. The honey becomes thick by ripening, for at first it is
like water, and continues liquid for some days, wherefore it
never becomes thick if it is taken away during that time.
It requires twenty days to make it consistent; this is very
plain from the taste of it, for it differs both in sweetness
and solidity. The bee carries honey from every plant
which has cup-shaped flowers, and from all those which
contain a sweet principle, but does not injure the fruit; it
takes up and carries away the sweet taste of plants with
its tongue-like organ.

6. The honey-comb is pressed when the wild figs begin
to appear; and they produce the best grubs when they
can produce honey. The bees carry the wax and bee-bread
upon their legs, but the honey is disgorged into
the cells. After the progeny is deposited in the cells,
they incubate like birds. In the wax cells the little worm
is placed at the side; afterwards it rises of itself to be fed.
It is united to the comb in such a manner as to be held
by it. The progeny both of the bees and drones from
which the little worms are produced, is white. As they
grow they become bees and drones. The progeny of the
king-bees is rather red, and about the consistency of thick
honey. In bulk it is as large as the creature which is produced
from it. The progeny of the king-bee is not a worm,
but comes forth a perfect bee, as they say; and, when the
progeny is produced in the comb, honey is found in that
which is opposite.

[Pg 130]

7. After the grub is covered up, it has wings and
feet; and when it has acquired wings, it bursts through
the membrane, and flies away. It evacuates an excrementitious
matter while it is a worm, but not afterwards, until
it is perfected, as I observed before. If a person cuts off
the head of the grub before its wings are acquired, the
other bees devour it; if a person having cut off the wings
of a drone lets it go, the bees will eat off the wings of the
other drones.

8. The bee will live for six years, some have lived for
seven, and if a swarm lasts nine or ten years, it is considered
to have done well. In Pontus there are very white
bees, which make honey twice every month. In Therniscyra,
near the river Thermodon, are found bees which make
cells in the earth, and in hives with a very small quantity
of wax, but their honey is thick. The cells are smooth
and homogeneous. They only do this in the winter, and
not all the year round; for there is a great deal of ivy in
the place, which flowers at this season of the year, and from
this they carry away the honey. From the higher regions
of Amisus a kind of white honey is procured, which the
bees form upon the trees without wax. The same is also
found in another place in Pontus. There are also bees
which form triple cells in the earth; these form honey, but
never have grubs. All such as these, however, are not cells,
neither are they formed by every kind of bee.

Chapter XX.

1. The anthrenæ[178] and wasps form cells for their progeny
when they have no rulers, but are wandering about in
search of them, the anthrenæ upon some high place, the
wasps in holes. But when they have the rulers they form
their cells underground. All their cells are hexagonal, like
those of bees; they are not formed of wax, but of a web-like
membrane, made of the bark of trees. The cells of
the anthrenæ are far more elegant than those of wasps.
Upon the side of their cells they place their progeny, in the
manner of the bees, like a drop of liquid united to the wall
of the cell. The progeny in all the cells is not alike, but in
some they are so large as to be almost ready for flight, in
others are nymphæ, in others grubs.

[Pg 131]

2. The only excrementitious matter is found in the cells
of the grubs, as in the case of bees. As long as they are
nymphæ they remain motionless, and the cell is sealed over,
and on the other side of the cell which contains their progeny,
there is a drop of honey in the combs of the anthrenæ.
The grubs of these creatures are produced in the autumn,
not in the spring, but they evidently grow most rapidly at
the full moon. The progeny and the grubs are not united
to the bottom, but to the side of the cell.

Chapter XXI.

1. Some of the bombycia[179] form an angular cell of mud,
which they attach to a stone or something else, and smear
with a kind of transparent substance; this is so very thick and
hard, that it can scarcely be broken with the blow of a spear.
In this they deposit their ova, and the white maggots are
contained in a black membrane; and wax is formed in the
mud without any membrane, this wax is much more yellow
than that of bees.

2. The ants also have sexual intercourse, and produce
maggots which they do not attach to anything. As these
grow, they change from small round things to long articulated
beings. The season for their production is in the
spring.

3. The land-scorpions also bring forth many egg-like
maggots, upon which they incubate. When the young
ones are perfect, they drive out and destroy their parents
like spiders, for they are frequently eleven in number.

Chapter XXII.

1. The arachnia copulate in the manner already described,
and produce maggots which at first are small. After their
metamorphosis they become spiders, not from a part but
from the whole of the maggot, for they are round from the
first. When the female has produced her ova, she incubates
upon them, in three days they acquire limbs. All
of them produce their young in a web, which is thin and
small in some species, but compact in others. Some are
enclosed entirely in a round receptacle, and others are only
partially covered by the web. All the young spiders are
[Pg 132]
not produced at once, but as soon as they are hatched they
leap out and shoot forth a web. If they are bruised
they are found to contain a thick white fluid like that of
maggots.

2. The field-spiders first of all deposit their ova in a web,
of which one half is attached to themselves, and the other
external, they incubate upon this, and produce their
young alive. The phalangia deposit their ova in a thick
basket which they weave, upon this they incubate. The
smooth kinds produce a small number, the phalangia a great
many. When they are grown, they surround their parent
in a circle, kill and throw her out. They often seize the
male in the same way if they can catch him, for he assists
the female in incubation. Sometimes there are as many as
three hundred round a single phalangium. The little
spiders become full-grown in about four weeks.

Chapter XXIII.

1. Locusts copulate in the same manner as all other insects,
the smaller mounting upon the larger, for the male
is the smaller. They oviposit by fixing the organ which is
attached to their tail (the ovipositor) in the ground. The
males do not possess this organ. Many of them deposit
their ova in one spot, so as to make it appear like a honey-comb.
As soon as they have deposited their ova, egg-like
maggots are formed, which are covered with a thin coating
of earth like a membrane, and in this they are matured.

2. The young are so soft as to collapse if they are only
touched. They are not produced on the surface, but a
little below the surface of the soil; and as soon as they
are matured, they escape from the coat of soil in which
they are enclosed as small black locusts. Their skin is
subsequently ruptured, and they then attain their full size.
They produce their young at the end of summer, and then
die.

3. For as soon as they have deposited their ova, small
worms make their appearance on their necks, the males also
perish at the same time: they come out of the earth in the
spring. Locusts never shew themselves in mountainous
countries, nor in poor land, but in plains, and broken soil,
for they deposit their ova in fissures. The ova remain in
[Pg 133]
the soil during the winter, and in the summer the locusts
are produced from the germs of the preceding year.

4. The young of the attelabi are produced in the same
manner, and the parents die after having deposited their
ova. Their ova are destroyed by the rains of the autumn,
if the weather is wet; but if that season is dry, many attelabi
are produced, because they are not equally destroyed;
for their destruction appears to be irregular, and to take
place by accident.

Chapter XXIV.

1. There are two kinds of grasshoppers: some are small.
These are the first to appear, the last to perish. Others,
which chirp, are large: these appear last, and disappear
first. There is another difference between the small and
large kind. Those which chirp have a division in the middle
of the body: those which do not chirp have none. The large
ones, which chirp, are called achetæ; the small are called
tettigonia. Such of these as are divided, sing a little.

2. Grasshoppers do not appear where there are no trees, for
which reason they are unknown in the open country of
Cyrene, but are abundant near the city, and especially
among olive trees, for these do not give much shade, and
grasshoppers are not produced in the cold, nor in very shady
groves. Both the large and small ones have sexual intercourse
with their own kind, copulating with each other on
their backs. The male inserts his organ into the female, in
the same manner as other insects. The female has a divided
pudendum. The female individual is the one which receives
the male.

3. They deposit their ova in fields, piercing the soil with
the organ at the extremity of their body, like the attelabi;
for the attelabi also oviposit in the fields, for which reason
they are common in Cyrene. They oviposit also in the
reeds which are used to support the vines; these they
pierce: and so they do in the stems of the scilla. The
young ones are washed into the earth, and are common in
rainy weather. The maggot, when it is grown in the earth,
becomes a tettigometra: these are sweetest before they
have ruptured their covering.

4. And when the season arrives for their appearance,
[Pg 134]
about the solstice, they come forth by night, and immediately
burst their envelope, and the tettigometra becomes a
grasshopper. They immediately become black and hard,
acquire their full size, and begin to chirp. In both kinds
the males chirp; the others, which do not chirp, are females.
When first produced the males are the sweetest: after the
sexual intercourse, the females are sweetest, for they contain
white ova.

5. If a noise is made as they fly along, they emit a fluid
like water, which the agriculturists describe as if they emitted
both a liquid and solid excrement, and that they feed on dew;
and if any one approaches them with a bent finger, which
is gradually straightened, they will remain more quiet than
if it is put out straight at once, and will climb up upon the
finger; for, from the dimness of their sight, they climb upon
it as if it were a moving leaf.

Chapter XXV.

1. Those insects which are not carnivorous, but live upon
the juices of living flesh, as lice, fleas, and bugs, produce
nits from sexual intercourse; from these nits nothing else
is formed. Of these insects the fleas originate in very small
portions of corrupted matter, for they are always collected
together where there is any dry dung. Bugs[180] proceed from the
moisture which collects on the bodies of animals: lice from
the flesh of other creatures; for before they appear, they
exist in little pimples which do not contain matter: and if
these are pricked, the lice[181] escape from them. Some persons
have been afflicted with a disease arising from excessive
moisture in the body, of which people have died, as they say
that Alcmon the poet, and Pherecydes of Syria did.

2. And in some diseases lice are very common. There is
a kind of lice, which they call wild, and are harder than the
common sort, which are difficult to eradicate from the body.
The heads of children are most subject to be infested
with lice, and men the least so, for women are more liable
to them than men. Those that have lice in the head are
less subject to headache. Many other animals are infested
with lice: for both birds have them, and those which are
called phasiani, unless they dust themselves, are destroyed by
[Pg 135]
them. And so are all those creatures which have feathers
with a hollow stem, and those which have hair, except the
ass, which has neither lice nor ticks. Oxen have both;
sheep and goats have ticks, but no lice; hogs are infested
with large, hard lice, and dogs with those which are called
cynoraïstæ. All lice originate in the animals that are infested
with them. All creatures that have lice, and wash
themselves, are more liable to them when they change the
water in which they bathe.

3. In the sea is a kind of lice[182] growing on fish; but these
do not originate in the fish, but in the mud. Their appearance
is that of wood-lice with many feet, except that
they have a wide tail. There is one species of marine lice
which occur everywhere, and especially infest the trigla.
All these creatures are furnished with many legs, are exsanguineous,
and insects. The œstrus[183] of the thynnus occurs
near the fins: in shape it is like a scorpion, and as large as
a spider. In the sea between Cyrene and Egypt, there is a
fish called the phtheira, which accompanies the dolphin; it
is the fattest of all fish, because it enjoys an abundance of
the food which the dolphin hunts for.

Chapter XXVI.

1. There are also other minute animals, as I observed before,
some of which occur in wool,[184] and in woollen goods; as
the moths, which are produced in the greatest abundance
when the wool is dusty, and especially if a spider is enclosed
with them, for this creature is thirsty, and dries up any
fluid which may be present. This worm also occurs in garments.
There is one which occurs in old honeycombs, like
the creature which inhabits dry wood: this appears to be
the least of all creatures, it is called acari, it is white
and small. Others also are found in books,[185] some of which
are like those which occur in garments: others are like
scorpions;[186] they have no tails, and are very small. And on
the whole, they occur in everything, so to say, which from
being dry, becomes moist, or being moist, becomes dry, if it
has any life in it.

[Pg 136]

2. There is a little worm which is called xylophthorus,[187]
which is no less extraordinary than these animals; for its
variegated head is projected beyond its case, and its feet are
at the extremity, as in other worms. The rest of the body
is contained in a case made of a substance like spider’s web,
and a dry material on the outside of this; so that it appears
to walk about with this attached to it. These creatures are
attached to their case, and as a snail to its shell, so the
whole of the case is joined to the worm, and it does not fall
out of it, but is drawn out of it, as if they were joined together.
If a person pulls off the case, the creature dies, and
becomes as helpless as a snail without its shell. As time
advances, this grub becomes a chrysalis, like a caterpillar,
and lies without motion: but the nature of the winged
creature that is produced has never been ascertained.

3. The wild figs upon the fig-trees contain a creature
called psen;[188] this is at first a little worm, and afterwards
having ruptured the case, the psen flies out, and leaves it
behind. It then pierces the unripe figs, and causes them
not to fall off, wherefore gardeners place wild fruit near the
cultivated kinds, and plant the wild and cultivated plants
near each other.

Chapter XXVII.

1. The sexual intercourse of sanguineous and oviparous
quadrupeds takes place in the spring. They do not, however,
all copulate at the same season; but some in the spring,
others in the summer or autumn, as the season is appropriate
for bringing up the young of each species. The tortoise produces
hard, two-coloured eggs, like those of birds. Having
deposited her eggs, she buries them, and makes a beaten
place above them. When this is done, she sits upon them.
The eggs are hatched the following year. The emys goes
out of the water to deposit her eggs, and digs a hole like a
cask, in which she places her eggs and leaves them. Having
left them alone for less than thirty days, she digs them up
again and hatches them and leads them at once to the water.
[Pg 137]
The marine turtles deposit their eggs in the earth like domestic
birds, and cover them up with earth and sit upon them
during the night. They produce a great many eggs, as many
as an hundred.

2. The saurians and both the land and river crocodiles
produce their eggs upon the land. Those of the lizards are
hatched spontaneously in the earth; for the lizard does not
live a whole year, for it is said to live only six months. The
river crocodile produces as many as sixty eggs, which are
white. She sits upon them for sixty days, for they live a long
while. A very large animal is produced from these small
eggs; for the egg is not larger than that of a goose, and the
young is in proportion, but when full grown the creature
measures seventeen cubits. Some persons say that it grows
as long as it lives.

Chapter XXVIII.

Among serpents the viper is externally viviparous, but first
of all internally oviparous. The ovum, like that of fish, is
of one colour and soft skinned. The young are produced
in the upper part. They are not enclosed in a shelly covering,
neither are the ova of fish. The little vipers are produced in
a membrane, which they rupture on the third day, and sometimes
they make their escape by eating their way through
the mother. They are produced one by one in the course
of a day, and their number often exceeds twenty. Other
serpents are externally oviparous, but their ova are joined
together like women’s necklaces. When the female deposits
her eggs in the soil, she incubates upon them. These also
are hatched in the second year. This is the manner of the
production of serpents, insects, and of oviparous quadrupeds.

BOOK THE SIXTH.

Chapter I.

1. The above describes the manner of reproduction in serpents,
insects, and oviparous quadrupeds. All birds are
oviparous, but the season of sexual intercourse and of bringing
out their young is not the same in all; for some copulate
and produce eggs at all seasons, as we may say, as the
domestic fowl and the pigeon, for the domestic fowl lays
eggs all the year round, except two months at the winter
solstice. Some of the finest birds will lay sixty eggs before
they want to sit, though these are not so fruitful as the
more common kinds. The Adrianic fowls are very small,
but they lay every day; but they are cruel, and often kill
their chickens. Their colour is variegated. Some of the
domestic birds lay twice a-day, and some have been known
to lay so many eggs that they died very soon.

2. The domestic fowls, as I said, lay continually; but the
pigeon, dove, trygon, and œnas lay twice a-year; and the
pigeon ten times. The greatest number of birds lay in the
spring; and some of them produce many young, and this in
two ways; some producing their young often, as the pigeon;
others producing many at a time, as the domestic fowl. All
birds with crooked claws, except the cenchris,[189] lay but few
eggs. This bird lays the most of any of its class; for it has
been observed to produce four, and it even produces more.
Some birds lay their eggs in nests; but those that do not
fly, as partridges and quails, do not make nests, but lay their
eggs on the ground and cover them over with rubbish. The
lark and tetrix[190] do the same.

3. These birds make their nests in a place sheltered from
the wind. That which the Beotians call ærops[191] is the
only bird that makes its nests in caverns in the earth.
The cichlæ[192] make nests of mud like swallows in the tops of
trees; but they place them in order close to each other, so
[Pg 139]
that from their proximity they look like a chain of nests.
Among the birds which make solitary nests, the hoopoe
makes no real nest, but lays its eggs in the stumps of hollow
trees, without building at all. The coccyx[193] lays its eggs in
houses and holes in rocks. The tetrix, which the Athenians
call “urax,” makes no nest on the ground or in trees, but
in herbaceous plants.

Chapter II.

1. The eggs of all birds are alike and have a hard shell, if
they are produced by sexual intercourse and are not decayed,
for domestic fowls sometimes lay soft eggs. Birds’ eggs are
two-coloured, externally white, internally yellow. The eggs
of birds inhabiting the sides of streams and lakes differ from
those living on dry land, for in the eggs of aquatic birds the
yolk bears a much larger proportion to the white.

2. The colours of eggs vary in different kinds of birds.
Some have white eggs, as pigeons, partridges; some yellow,
as those inhabiting streams; others are spotted, as those of
the meleagris[194] and phasianus;[195] the eggs of the cenchris are red
like vermilion. In the egg itself there is a difference; for
one end is pointed, the other round. The round end is produced
first. The large, sharp eggs are males; those which
are round and circular at the sharp end are females.

3. They are matured by incubation. Some are hatched
spontaneously in the earth, as in Egypt, being buried in
dung; and they say that in Syracuse a drunkard placed eggs
beneath his mat, and drank without ceasing until the eggs
were hatched; and eggs placed in warm vessels have been
matured and hatched spontaneously.

4. The seminal fluid of all birds is white, like that of
other animals; and when they copulate the female receives
the male semen near the diaphragm. The egg at first appears
small and white, afterwards red and bloody; as it grows it becomes
quite ochreous and yellow; when it becomes larger a
distinction is made, and the internal part becomes yellow,
the external white; and when it is perfected it is set at
liberty, and excluded just at the period when it is changing
from soft to hard. So that during exclusion it is not hardened;
[Pg 140]
but as soon as it is excluded it thickens and becomes
hard, unless it is diseased. And eggs have been known to
be excluded in the state in which all eggs are at a certain
period of their growth; for they were entirely yellow, as the
young bird is afterwards. Such have also been observed in the
domestic fowl beneath the diaphragm, where the eggs of the
hen are placed, entirely yellow, and as large as eggs usually
are. This has been considered ominous.

5. They are mistaken who say that the hypenemia (barren
eggs) are the remains of former acts of sexual intercourse;
for young birds, as fowls and geese, have been frequently
observed to lay such eggs without any sexual intercourse.
Barren eggs are smaller, not so sweet, and more fluid than
fertile eggs, and they are more numerous. If they are placed
under a bird, the fluid part never thickens, but both the
yolk and the white remain in their original state. Many
birds produce these eggs, as the domestic fowl, partridge,
pigeon, peafowl, goose, and chenalopex.[196]

6. Eggs are hatched more readily in summer than in
winter; for in the summer the domestic fowl will hatch in
eighteen days, but in winter sometimes in not less than
twenty-five days. Some birds also are more adapted for
incubation than others. A thunder-storm during the season
of incubation will destroy the eggs. What are called cynosura
and uria (addled eggs) are more frequently produced
in the summer. The hypenemia[197] are by some persons called
zephyria, because they say that birds receive these winds in
the spring. They do the same thing if they are touched
with the hand. The hypenemia become fertile; and eggs
that are produced by sexual intercourse are changed to another
kind, if the hen which contains either hypenemia or
fertile eggs has sexual intercourse with another bird before
the eggs begin to change from yellow to white, and the
hypenemia become fertile, and the fertile eggs produce birds
of the nature of the second male.

7. But if the change from yellow to white has already
taken place, neither the barren nor the fertile eggs are altered,
so as to change to the nature of the second male. And if
the sexual intercourse should be discontinued while the eggs
are small, those which existed previously undergo no change,
[Pg 141]
but if the act is repeated, a rapid increase in size takes place.
The nature of the white and yolk of the egg is different, not
only in colour, but in other properties, for the yolk coagulates
with cold, while the white remains fluid, but the white
coagulates with heat, which the yolk does not, but remains
soft, if it is not burnt; and it becomes consistent and dry
by boiling rather than roasting.

8. The white and yolk are separated from each other by
a membrane. The chalazæ at the extremities of the yolk
have nothing to do with generation, as some persons suppose.
These spots are two, one below and one above. If many
whites and yolks of eggs are taken out, and mixed together
in a vessel, and cooked with a slow and moderate heat,
the yolks will all collect in the middle, and the whites will
surround them. Young domestic fowls begin to lay eggs at
the beginning of the spring; they lay more than those
which are older, but those of the young birds are smaller,
and if birds are not permitted to incubate, they are destroyed
and become sick.

9. After copulation birds ruffle and shake themselves,
and often cover themselves with chaff, and this also they do
when they have laid. Pigeons draw up their tail, geese
go and bathe. The pregnancy and conception of barren
eggs is quick in most birds, as in the partridge, on account
of the violence of their sexual desires; for if the hen
stands in the way of the breath of the male, she conceives,
and immediately becomes of no use for fowling; for
the partridge appears to have a very distinct smell. The
production of the egg after copulation, and the production
of the young by incubation, do not occupy the same length
of time in all birds, but varies according to their size. The
egg of the domestic fowl is perfected in ten days after
sexual intercourse, and that of the pigeon in a shorter time.
Pigeons are able to retain their eggs even in the act of
parturition. If they are disturbed by anything occurring
in the neighbourhood of their nest, or a feather be plucked
out, or if anything else troubles or disturbs them, they retain
the egg they were about to lay.

10. This is peculiar to pigeons, and so is the following:
for they kiss each other when the male is about to mount,
or else they will not endure it. The older bird first gives
[Pg 142]
a kiss, but afterwards he mounts without kissing, but
younger birds always kiss before copulation. This also is
peculiar to these birds. The females kiss and mount upon
each other like the males, when there is no male present.
They do not project anything into each other, but produce
more eggs than those which produce fertile ones; from these
eggs nothing is hatched, but they are all barren.

Chapter III.

1. The production of the bird from the egg is alike in them
all, but the period of completion varies, as I observed before.
In domestic fowls the first sign of alteration takes
place after three days and nights. This period is longer in
larger birds, and shorter in small birds. During this period
the upper part of the yolk advances to the small extremity
of the egg, which is the beginning of the egg. This is the
part from which the chicken is excluded, and the heart is
visible like a red spot in the white of the egg.

2. This spot palpitates and moves as though it were endued
with life. From this, as it increases, two involved
sanguineous passages like veins lead to each of the surrounding
tunics; and a membrane which has sanguineous
passages encloses the white at this period, and separates it
from the venous passages. A short time afterwards the
body is distinguished, at first very small and white, but the
head is distinct, and in this the eyes are the most enlarged.
And this continues for some time, for afterwards the eyes are
reduced in size and approach each other, but the lower part
of the body has not at first any proportion to the upper part.

3. One of the passages from the heart extends into a
circle around the embryo, and the other to the yolk, as if
it were an umbilical cord. The origin of the young bird
is in the white, its nutriment is derived from the yolk
through the umbilical cord. On the tenth day, the whole
of the young bird and all its parts are distinct, but its
head is still larger than the rest of the body, and the eyes
are larger than the rest of the head. They have no sense
of sight. If the eyes are taken out at this period, they
are larger than beans, and black; when the skin is
taken from them, they are seen to contain a white and cold
[Pg 143]
fluid, very brilliant in appearance, but without any hard
substance. This is the manner of the development of the
eyes and head.

4. At the same period the viscera are visible, but the
stomach, and intestines, and the veins from the heart still
appear to extend towards the navel. From the navel a
vein appears to extend upon the membrane which encloses
the yolk, and the yolk itself is at this period fluid, and
more abundant than in its natural state. The other extends
to the membrane which encloses the whole membrane containing
the embryo, and the membrane of the yolk and the
fluid between them, and when the young birds have grown
a little more, part of the yolk goes to one end, and part to
the other, and between them is the fluid white; but the
white is still below the lower part of the yolk, where it was
at first, but at the tenth day the white disappears, for it has
become small, viscid, thick, and rather yellow.

5. This is the position of all the parts: the first and last
part adjoining the shell is the membrane of the egg, not the
membrane of the shell, but beneath this. This contains the
fluid white; within this is the young bird, and a membrane
surrounding it, and separating it from the fluid; beneath
the embryo is the yolk, to which one of the veins extends,
and the other to the white which encloses it. A membrane
containing a fluid resembling sanies encloses the whole, and
then another membrane which surrounds the embryo itself,
as I observed, and separates it from the fluid. Below this
the yolk, enclosed in another membrane, which is reached
by the umbilical cord from the heart, and the great vein, so
that the embryo does not appear to be in either of the fluids.

6. About the twentieth day, if the hatching has been delayed
beyond this period, the young bird is able to chirp
when moved externally, and if the shell is taken off, by this
time also it is downy. The head is placed over the right leg
upon the side, and the wing is over the head. At this
period the chorion-like membrane is visible, which is united
with the lowest membrane of the shell, to which one of the
umbilical cords passes, and the young bird is complete. The
other chorion-like membrane is also visible, enclosing the
yolk. To this the other umbilical cord extends. Both of
these cords are attached to the heart and the great vein. At
[Pg 144]
the same period the cord which is attached to one chorion
falls off, and is separated from the animal, but the one which
passes to the yolk remains suspended from the young bird
by a thin bowel, and a considerable portion of the yolk is
contained in the young bird, and some of it is found in the
stomach.

7. At this period also they eject an excrementitious
matter into the external chorion, and contain it in the
stomach. The external excrement is white, the internal
yellow. At last the yolk, which has been continually
wasting and advancing, is entirely taken up and enclosed in
the young bird. So that portions of it may be observed in
the intestines of birds if they are dissected on the tenth
day after exclusion from the egg. But it is set at liberty
from the navel, nor does any communication remain, but
the whole is separated. About the before-mentioned period
the young bird sleeps, but it stirs itself, and looks up, and
chirps when it is touched, and the heart swells up with the
navel, as if the embryo were breathing. This is the manner
of the development of the chick in the egg.

8. Birds also produce some barren eggs, as well as those
from sexual intercourse, but they produce nothing after incubation.
This is particularly observed in pigeons. Double
eggs have two yolks; in some a thin division of white prevents
the yolks from mixing together; others have not this
division, but touch each other. There are some hens which
always lay double eggs, and in these the peculiarities of the
yolks have been observed; for a certain bird having laid
eighteen eggs, hatched two chickens from each of them, except
those that were addled; all the rest were productive,
except that one of the twin chickens was large and the
other small in each. The last, however, was monstrous.

Chapter IV.

1. All the pigeon tribe, as the phatta and trygon, generally
produce two eggs; the trygon and the phatta are those
which generally lay three. The pigeon lays, as I said, at
every season; the trygon and the phatta in the spring, and
not more than twice. The second brood are hatched when
the first has been destroyed, for many birds destroy them.
[Pg 145]
It sometimes lays three, as I have said, but it never brings
out more than two young ones, and sometimes only one,
the remaining egg is always addled. Very few birds begin
to lay before they are a year old; but when they have once
begun to lay, they all, as we may say, naturally contain eggs
to the end of their life, though it is not easy to see them in
some birds, from their small size.

2. The pigeon usually produces one male and one female,
and of these the male is often hatched first; and having laid
an egg one day, she omits many days and then lays another.
The male sits during a portion of the day, and the female
during the night. The first young one is hatched and able to
fly within twenty days, and the egg is billed on the day before
it is hatched; both the old birds keep the young ones warm
for some time, as they do the eggs. During the time of
bringing up their young the female is fiercer than the male:
this is also the case in other animals. They produce young ten
times in a year, and sometimes eleven times; those in Egypt
even twelve times. The cock and hen birds copulate within
the year, for they do this at the end of six months.

3. And some say that the phatta and trygon are matured
when three months old, and they consider their great numbers
as a proof of this. The female contains her eggs fourteen
days, and then sits upon them fourteen more; in fourteen
days after this the young ones fly so well that it is
difficult to catch them. The phatta lives, as they say, forty
years; the partridge more than sixteen years. The pigeon,
after having brought out her young, lays again in thirty days.

Chapter V.

1. The vulture builds its nest in inaccessible rocks, wherefore
its nest and young ones are rarely seen. For this
reason Herodorus, the father of Bryson the sophist, says
that vultures come from another part of the earth, which is
invisible to us, giving as a reason for his opinion, that they
are seen in great numbers suddenly following the path of an
army. But difficult as it is to observe them, their nests have
been seen. The vulture produces two eggs. No other carnivorous
bird has been observed to produce young more than
once a year; but the swallow more frequently produces
young twice a year than the carnivorous birds. If a person
[Pg 146]
pierces the eyes of young swallows they recover, and are
able to see afterwards.

Chapter VI.

1. The eagle produces three eggs, of which two only are
hatched. This is also related in the poems of Musæus.
The bird which lays three eggs, hatches two, and brings up
but one. This frequently happens; but three young have
been seen in the nest. When the young begin to grow, one
of them is turned out by the parent, because she dislikes the
trouble of feeding it. At this period it is said to be without
food, so that it does not capture the young of wild creatures,
for a few days the talons are turned back, and the
feathers become white, so that it then becomes cruel to its
young. The phene[198] receives and brings up the ejected
young one.

2. The eagle incubates for thirty days; this is the usual
period of incubation for large birds, as the goose and the
bustard. Moderately sized birds usually sit twenty days, as
the ictinus[199] and hierax.[200] The ictinus usually produces two
young ones, and sometimes three; the Ætolian kite, as it
is called, sometimes produces four. The raven produces not
only two, but, as they say, many eggs, which she sits upon
for about twenty days. She also turns out some of her
young ones. Many other birds do the same thing; and
generally those which produce several turn out one.

3. All kinds of eagles do not behave in the same way to
their young; but the pygargus is cruel; and the black eagles
are careful for the food of their young; but all birds with
crooked talons as soon as their young can fly well beat them
and drive them from the nest. And most birds of other
classes, as I have before observed, do the same thing; and
when they have brought them up, they take no more notice
of them, except the crow. This bird cares for its young a
long while, for as it flies past them it gives them food after
they are able to fly.

Chapter VII.

1. The cuckoo is said by some persons to be a changed hawk,
because the hawk which it resembles disappears when the
[Pg 147]
cuckoo comes, and indeed very few hawks of any sort can be
seen during the period in which the cuckoo is singing except
for a few days. The cuckoo is seen for a short time in the
summer, and disappears in winter. But the hawk has crooked
talons, which the cuckoo has not, nor does it resemble the
hawk in the form of its head, but in both these respects is
more like the pigeon than the hawk, which it resembles in
nothing but its colour; the markings, however, upon the
hawk are like lines, while the cuckoo is spotted.

2. Its size and manner of flight is like that of the smallest
kind of hawk, which generally disappears during the season
in which the cuckoo is seen. But they have both been seen
at the same time, and the cuckoo was being devoured by the
hawk, though this is never done by birds of the same kind.
They say that no one has ever seen the young of the cuckoo.
It does, however, lay eggs, but it makes no nest; but sometimes
it lays its eggs in the nests of small birds, and devours
their eggs, especially in the nests of the pigeon, when it has
eaten their eggs. Sometimes it lays two, but usually only
one egg; it lays also in the nest of the hypolais,[201] which
hatches and brings it up. At this season it is particularly
fat and sweet-fleshed; the flesh also of young hawks is very
sweet and fat. There is also a kind of them which builds a
nest in precipitous cliffs.

Chapter VIII.

1. In many birds the male alternates with the female in the
duty of incubation, as we observed in speaking of pigeons,
and takes her place while she is obliged to procure food for
herself. In geese the female alone sits upon the eggs, and
having once begun, she never leaves them during the whole
process of incubation. The nests of all water birds are
situated in marshy and grassy places, by which means they
can keep quiet and still have food within their reach, so that
they do not starve all the while. The females alone, among
the crows, sit on the eggs, which they never leave; but the
males bring them food and feed them.

2. The females of the pigeons begin to sit at twilight, and
remain on the nest the whole night, till dawn; and the male
the rest of the time. Partridges make two nests of eggs,
[Pg 148]
upon one of which the male sits, on the other the female;
and each of them hatches and brings up its own: and the
male has sexual intercourse with its young as soon as they
are hatched.

Chapter IX.

1. The peacock lives about twenty-five years, and produces
young generally at three years old; by which time also they
have obtained their variegated plumage: and it hatches in
thirty days, or rather more. It only produces young once
a-year, laying twelve eggs, or not quite so many. It lays
its eggs at intervals of two or three days, and not regularly.
At first they lay only eight. The pea-fowl also lays barren
eggs: they copulate in the spring, and lay their eggs immediately
afterwards.

2. This bird sheds its feathers when the leaves of the
trees begin to fall, and begins to acquire them again with
the first budding in the spring. Those who rear these
birds place the eggs for incubation beneath domestic fowls;
because the peacock flies at, and torments the hen when
she is sitting; for which reason some of the wild birds
make their escape from the males before they begin to lay
and sit. They place only two eggs under domestic fowls,
for these are all that they can hatch and bring out; and
they take care to put food before them, that they may not
get up and desert their incubation.

3. Birds at the season of sexual intercourse have large
testicles. In the more lascivious they are always more evident,
as the domestic cock and the partridge. In those
that are not always lascivious, they are less. This is the
manner of the gestation and reproduction of birds.

Chapter X.

1. It has been already observed that fish are not always
oviparous, for the selache are always viviparous. All the
rest are oviparous. The selache are viviparous, having
first of all produced ova internally; and these they bring up
in themselves, except the batrachus. Fish have also, as I
observed before, very different uteri in different kinds: for
in the oviparous genera the uterus is double, and situated
low down. In the selache the uterus is more like that of birds.
There is this difference, however, that the ova are not placed
[Pg 149]
near the diaphragm, but in an intermediate position near
the spine; and when they have grown they change their
place from this part. The ovum in all fish is not of two, but
of one colour; and it is more white than yellow, both in its
early stages, and after the formation of the embryo.

2. The development of the ovum is different in fish and
in birds, in that it has not the umbilical cord which passes
to the membrane of the shell; but only the passage which
leads to the yolk in the eggs of birds. The rest of the development
of the ovum is alike in birds and fish; for it takes
place at the extremity, and the veins have their origin in
a similar manner in the heart; and the head, and eyes, and
upper parts of the body are larger than the rest. As the
young fish increases, the ovum continues to diminish, and
at last it disappears, and is absorbed, like the yolk in the
eggs of birds. The umbilical cord is attached a little below
the abdomen. At first the cord is long, but it becomes less
as the fish grows, and at last is small, and finally absorbed,
like that of birds.

3. The embryo and the ovum are enclosed in a common
membrane, and beneath this there is another membrane, in
which the embryo alone is enclosed. Between these membranes
there is a fluid substance. The nutriment contained
in the stomach of the young fish is similar to that in the
young birds, partly white, and partly yellow. The form of
the uterus must be learned from dissection. This organ is
different in different fish, as in the galeode by themselves, and
the flat fish by themselves: for in some the ova are attached
near the spine to the centre of the uterus, as I observed before,
as in scylia.[202] They descend when they begin to increase,
when the uterus is double, and are attached to the diaphragm,
as in other fish: the ova descend into each division.

4. The uterus of these fish, and of the other galeode, has a
small appendage attached to the diaphragm like a white
nipple, which is not present unless they are pregnant. The
scylia and the batis have a shell-like substance, which contains
the fluid of the ovum. In form the shell resembles the
tongue of a wind instrument, and hair-like passages are attached
to the shells. The young of the scylia, which some
persons call nebria galei, are born when the shell falls off and
bursts. The young of the batis when they are brought forth
[Pg 150]
are excluded by the rupture of the shell. In the acantheas[203]
galeos the ova are attached to the diaphragm above the
nipples; and when the ovum descends, the young is attached
to it after it is set free. The reproduction of the alopex is
in the same manner.

5. Most galei which are called smooth have the ova placed
between the divisions of the uterus, like those of the scylia;
and as they surround it, they descend into each division of
the uterus, and they are produced, attached to the uterus
by an umbilical cord; so that when the ova are taken out,
they appear similar to the embryo of quadrupeds. And the
long umbilical cord is attached to the lower part of the
uterus, each part, as it were, attached to an acetabulum;
and to the middle of the embryo near the liver. And when
it is dissected, the food is like an egg, though the ovum be
no longer there. There is a chorion, and peculiar membranes
surrounding each of the embryos, as in quadrupeds.

6. The head of the embryo when it is just produced, is
upwards; but as it grows and reaches maturity, it is placed
downwards. The males are placed on the left, and the
females on the right, or there are males and females together
on the same side. The embryo, when dissected, resembles
that of quadrupeds, in having its viscera such as it has, as the
liver, large, and full of blood. In all the selache the ova are
placed high up, near the diaphragm; many larger, and many
smaller: and the embryos are placed below, wherefore it is
probable that such fish produce their young, and copulate
frequently during the same month, for they do not produce
all their young at once, but frequently, and for a long while;
but those that are in the lower part of the uterus are matured
and brought to perfection.

7. The other galei both emit and receive their young into
themselves, and so do the rhine and the narca; and a large
narca has been observed to contain eighty young in herself.
The acanthias is the only one of the galei which does not
admit its young into itself, on account of their thorns.
Among the flat fish the trygon and batos do not admit their
young, on account of the roughness of the tail. Neither
does the batrachus admit its young, on account of the size
of their heads, and their thorns; and this is the only one
that is not viviparous, as I previously observed. These are
[Pg 151]
their mutual differences, and the manner of the development
of their ova.

8. At the season of sexual intercourse, the seminal ducts
of the male are full of fluid, so that a white matter escapes
when they are pressed. These passages are divided, and
originate in the diaphragm and the large vein: at the same
season the passages of the male are conspicuous, and may be
compared with the uterus of the female. When it is not
the season of sexual intercourse, they are less conspicuous,
from not being in use. In some fish, and sometimes, they
are not visible at all, as it was remarked of the testicles of
birds. The seminal and uterine passages are different in
other respects also, and because those of the male are attached
to the loins, those of the female are easily moved,
and enclosed in a thin membrane. The nature of the passages
of the male may be seen in works on anatomy.

9. The selachea become pregnant again while with young,
and the period of gestation is six months. Among the galei,
the asterias produces young the oftenest; for it produces
twice in a month: it begins to copulate in the month of September.
All the other galei except the scylia produce twice
in the year; the scylia but once. Some of them have their
young in the spring. The rhine produces its first brood in
the spring, and its last in the autumn, near the winter season,
and the setting of the Pleiades. The second fry are the most
numerous. The narca produces its young in the autumn.
The selache descend from the ocean and deep water to the
shore, to produce their young, both for the sake of the
warmth, and care of their offspring.

10. No other fish but the rhine and the batos have ever
been observed to unite with others not of their own kind,
but there is a fish called the rhinobatus, which has the head
and upper part of the rhine, and the lower part like the
batus, as it were made up of both. The galei and the
galeoeides, as the alopex, dog-fish, and the flat fish, as the
narce batos, leiobatos and trygon, are in this manner ovoviparous.

Chapter XI.

1. The dolphin, whale, and other cetacea which have a
blow-hole but no gills, are viviparous, and so are the
[Pg 152]
pristis and the bos. For none of these have an ovum, but
a proper fœtus, from which, when perfected, an animal is
developed, as in man and the viviparous quadrupeds. The
dolphin usually produces one, and sometimes two young
ones. The whale generally and usually produces two and
sometimes one. The phocæna is similar to the dolphin,
for it is like a small dolphin. It is produced in the Pontus.
In some respects the phocæna differs from the dolphin, for
its size is smaller, it is wider in the back, and its colour is
blue. Many persons say that the phocæna is a kind of
dolphin.

2. All these creatures which have a blow-hole, breathe
and inhale air; and the dolphin has been observed while
asleep with the muzzle above the water, and it snores in
its sleep. The dolphin and phocæna give milk and suckle
their young. They also receive their young into themselves.
The growth of the young dolphins is rapid, for
they attain their full size in ten years. The female is pregnant
for ten months. The dolphin produces her young
in the summer-time, and at no other season. They seem
also to disappear for thirty days during the season of the
dog-star. The young follow their dam for a long while,
and it is an animal much attached to its offspring. It lives
many years; for some have been known to live twenty-five
or thirty years; for fishermen have marked them by cutting
their tails and then giving them their liberty. In this way
their age was known.

3. The seal is amphibious, for it does not inhale water,
but breathes and sleeps. It produces its young on land,
but near the shore, in the manner of animals with feet; but
it lives the greater part of its time, and obtains its food in
the sea, wherefore it is to be considered among aquatic
animals. It is properly viviparous, and produces a living
creature, and a chorion, and it brings forth the other membranes
like a sheep. It produces one or two, never more
than three young ones. It has also mammæ, so that it
suckles its young like quadrupeds. It produces its young
like the human subject, at all seasons of the year, but especially
with the earliest goats.

4. When the young are twelve days old, it leads them to
the water several times in the day, in order to habituate
[Pg 153]
them by degrees. It drags its hinder parts along, and does
not walk, for it cannot erect itself upon its feet, but it contracts
and draws itself together. It is fleshy and soft, and
its bones are cartilaginous. It is difficult to kill the seal
by violence, unless it is struck upon the temple, for its body
is fleshy. It has a voice like an ox. The pudendum of the
female is like that of the batis, in all other animals of the
class the pudendum resembles that of the human female.
This is the manner of the development and nature of the
young of aquatic animals which are either internally or
externally viviparous.

Chapter XII.

1. The oviparous fish have a divided uterus placed on the
lower part of the body, as I observed before. All that have
scales are viviparous, as the labrax, cestreus, cephalus, etelis,[204]
and those called white fish, and all smooth fish except the
eel. Their ova resemble sand. This appearance is owing
to their uterus being quite full of ova, so that small fish
appear to have only two ova; for the small size and thinness
of the uterus renders it invisible in these creatures. I have
before treated of the sexual intercourse of fish. The sexes
are distinct in almost all fish, though there is some doubt
about the erythrinus[205] and the channa, for all these are
found to be pregnant.

2. Ova are found in those fish which have sexual intercourse,
though they possess them without intercourse.
This is observable in some kinds of river fish; for the
phoxini[206] appear to be pregnant as soon as they are born,
and when they are quite small. They emit the ova in a
stream; and, as I observed before, the males devour great
numbers of them, and others perish in the water. Those
are preserved which they deposit in their appropriate situations.
For, if all were preserved, the numbers that would
be found would be immense. Not all those that are preserved
are fertile, but only those on which the seminal fluid
of the male has been sprinkled. When the female produces
her ova, the male follows, and scatters his semen upon them.
Young fish are produced from those ova which are thus
sprinkled. The remainder turn out as chance may direct.

[Pg 154]

3. The same thing also occurs in the malacia; for the
male sepia sprinkles the ova of the female as they are deposited;
and it is reasonable to suppose that the other
malacia do the same, although it has only been observed in
the sepia. They produce their ova near the land, the cobii
deposit them upon stones, and that which they produce is
flat and sand-like. The rest do the same, for the parts near
the land are warmer, and provision is more abundant, and
there is better protection for their young against larger
fish, for which cause very great numbers deposit their ova
near the river Thermodon, in the Pontus, for the place is
sheltered and warm, and the water is sweet.

4. The majority of viviparous fish reproduce once in
a-year, except the small phycides,[207] which reproduce twice
a-year. The male phyces differs from the female, being
darker-coloured and having larger scales. All other fish
produce from seed, and emit ova; but that which is called
the belone, at the season of reproduction bursts asunder,
and in this way the ova escape; for this fish has a division
beneath the stomach and bowels, like the serpents called
typhlinæ.[208] When it has produced its ova, it survives, and
the wound heals up again.

5. The development of the ovum is alike, both in those
that are internally and those that are externally oviparous.
For it takes place at the extremity of the ovum, and it is enclosed
in a membrane. The eyes are the first part that is conspicuous;
they are large and spherical; so that it is plain that
they are mistaken who say that the mode of development resembles
that of vermiform creatures, for in them the order
is different, and the lower parts are formed first, and afterwards
the head and eyes. When the ovum is taken away,
they assume a circular form, and for some time continue to
grow without taking in any food, by absorbing the moisture
of the ovum. They afterwards derive their nutriment, as
long as they continue growing, from the water of the river.

6. When the Pontus is cleansed, something is floated
out into the Hellespont which is called fucus. It is of a
yellow colour. Some say that it is naturally a plant. This
takes place at the beginning of summer. The oysters and
small fish which live in these places feed upon this fucus;
[Pg 155]
and some maritime persons say that they obtain their purple
from this plant.

Chapter XIII.

1. The pond and river fish begin to reproduce usually when
five months old. They all produce their ova at the beginning
of summer. Like the marine fish, the females of these
kinds never emit all their ova, nor the males all their
semen, at once; but both sexes are always found to contain
a portion of the reproductive substance; they produce
their ova at the proper season. The cyprinus five or
six times a-year, and especially under the influence of the
stars. The chalcis reproduces three times, all the rest but
once a-year.

2. They deposit their ova in the stagnant parts of rivers
and ponds among the reeds, as the phoxinus and perca. The
glanis and the perca produce their ova in strings, like the
frog. That which the perca produces is so involved that, on
account of its breadth, the fishermen collect it together from
among the reeds in ponds. The larger individuals of the
glanis produce their ova in deep water, some where it is a
fathom deep; but the smaller ones in shallow water, and
especially at the root of the willow or some other tree, and
among the reeds and mosses.

3. The fish fold themselves together, sometimes a large
one with a small one, and approximate the passages, which
some call their navel, from which they eject their respective
seminal matter, the females their ova, and the males their
spermatic fluid. Those ova with which the semen of the
male has been mixed immediately or in the course of a day
become whiter and larger, and in a short time the eyes of
the fish make their appearance; for in all fish, as in other
animals, this part is most conspicuous, and appears the largest.
But, if the seminal fluid does not touch any of the ova, as in
the case of sea-fish, these become useless and barren.

4. From the fertile ova, as the fish increase in size, something
like a shell is separated; this is the membrane which
envelopes the ovum and the embryo fish. As soon as the
seminal fluid is mixed with the ova a glutinous matter is
formed, which fastens them to the roots or other substance
on which they are deposited. The male watches over the
place where the greatest number of ova are deposited, and
[Pg 156]
the female departs as soon as she has spawned. The development
of the ovum of the glanis proceeds the most slowly, for
the male remains by them for forty or fifty days, in order
that they may not be devoured by fish chancing to come
that way.

5. Next to this is the cyprinus. The ova, however, of
these which are preserved escape very quickly. The development
in some of the small fish takes place on the third
day, and the ova upon which the seminal fluid has fallen
begin to increase on the same day, or shortly afterwards.
The ova of the glanis become as large as the seed of the
orobus. Those of the cyprinus and that class, about the
size of millet. The ova of these fish are produced and developed
in this manner.

6. The chalcis assembles in great numbers to deposit its
ova in deep water. The fish which is called tilon deposits
its ova near the shore, in sheltered places; this fish also is
gregarious. The cyprinus, balerus, and all others, so to
say, hasten into shallow water to deposit their ova, and thirteen
or fourteen males often follow a single female, and when
the female has deposited her ova and departed, the males
that follow her sprinkle their semen upon them. The majority
of the ova are lost, for the female scatters them abroad
as she is moving forward, unless they fall upon any substance,
and are not carried away by the stream. None of
them, except the glanis, watch their ova, unless the cyprinus
meets with them in great numbers, when, they say, that this
fish watches them.

7. All the male fish have semen, except the eel, and this
one has neither semen nor ova. The cestreus migrates from
the sea into lakes and rivers; the eel, on the contrary, leaves
them for the sea. Most fish, therefore, as I observed, proceed
from ova.

Chapter XIV.

1. Some originate in mud and sand: even of those kinds which
originate in sexual intercourse and ova, some, they say, have
appeared both in other marshy places and in those which once
surrounded Cnidus, which became dry under the influence of
the dog-star, and all the mud was parched up, but with the
first rains the waters returned, and small fish appeared with
[Pg 157]
the return of the waters. This was a kind of cestreus, which
originates in coition, about the size of small mænidia,[209] but
they had neither ova nor semen. In the Asiatic rivers,
which do not flow into the sea, other small fish, of the size
of epseti,[210] are produced in the same manner. Some persons
say that the cestreus is always produced in this manner, but
in this they are mistaken, for both the females are known
to have ova and the males semen. But there is some one
kind of them which originates in mud and sand.

2. It is evident from the following considerations that
some of them are of spontaneous growth, and do not originate
either in ova or semen. Those which are neither oviparous
nor viviparous are all produced either from mud or
sand, or from the putrid matter on the surface, as also the
foam in sandy places produces the aphya.[211] This aphya never
increases in size, and is barren, and as time advances it
perishes, and another fry is formed. Wherefore it may be
said to be reproduced at every season, except for a short
time; for it continues from the autumn arcturus to the
spring. This is a proof that it sometimes originates in the
soil, for it is not captured by fishermen in cold weather, but
on a fine day it may be taken as it comes up from the ground
for the sake of the warmth. When they have dragged the
ground and scraped up the surface, the fish are more numerous
and better. The other aphyæ are inferior, on account
of their rapid growth.

3. They are found in shady and marshy places, when the
earth becomes warm in fine weather, as near the temple
of Athene in Salamis, and near the tomb of Themistocles,
and near Marathon, for foam is formed in all these places.
It makes its appearance in such places, and in fine weather:
it appears also at times in seasons of much rain, and when
foam is formed of rain water, wherefore also it is called
aphrus; and sometimes it is found on the surface of the sea,
in fine weather, where it is whirled about, and, like the little
maggots in dung, so this is found in the foam which floats on
the surface; wherefore also this aphya is carried by the sea
in many directions, and it abounds and is captured in the
greatest abundance when the season is moist and warm.

4. There is another aphya derived from fish, for that
which is called cobitis is derived from small and inferior
[Pg 158]
gobii, which bury themselves in the earth. The membrades
are produced from the phalerica. The trichides come from
these, and the trichiæ from the trichides; from one kind of
aphya, which inhabits the port of Athens, the encrasicoli
are derived. There is another kind of aphya which originates
in the mœnis and cestreus, but the barren aphrus is very
soft, and endures only for a short time, as I said before, and
at last nothing is left but the head and eyes. The fishermen,
however, have now found a mode of conveying it from
place to place, for it lasts longer when salted.

Chapter XV.

1. Eels are not produced from sexual intercourse, nor are
they oviparous, nor have they ever been detected with semen
or ova, nor when dissected do they appear to possess either
seminal or uterine viscera; and this is the only kind of sanguineous
animal which does not originate either in sexual
intercourse or in ova. It is, however, manifest that this is
the case, for, after rain, they have been reproduced in some
marshy ponds, from which all the water was drawn and the
mud cleaned out; but they are never produced in dry places
nor in ponds that are always full, for they live upon and are
nourished by rain water. It is plain, therefore, that they
are not produced either from sexual intercourse or from ova.
Some persons have thought that they were productive, because
some eels have parasitical worms, and they thought
that these became eels.

2. This, however, is not the case, but they originate in
what are called the entrails of the earth, which are found
spontaneously in mud and moist earth. They have been
observed making their escape from them, and others have
been found in them when cut up and dissected. These
originate both in the sea and in rivers wherein putrid matter
is abundant; in those places in the sea which are full of
fuci, and near the banks of rivers and ponds, for in these
places the heat causes much putridity. This is the mode of
generation in eels.

Chapter XVI.

1. The reproductive function is not active in all fish at the
same time or the same manner, nor are they pregnant during
the same length of time. Before the season of sexual intercourse
[Pg 159]
the males and females begin to assemble, and at the
period of intercourse and the production of their ova they pair
together. Some of them do not remain pregnant more than
thirty days, and others not so long; but all of them remain
so for a number of days, which can be distributed into seven.
Those which some persons call marini remain pregnant for
the longest period. The sargus becomes pregnant in the
month of December, and remains so for thirty days. The
kind of cestreus which some persons call the chelon and the
myxon are pregnant at the same time as the sargus. All
these suffer in their pregnancy, wherefore they are driven to
the shore at this season; for in the vehemence of their desire
they are carried towards the land, and always continue in
motion during this period till they have produced their ova.
The cestreus is more remarkable for this than any other fish.
As soon as they have deposited their ova, they become quiet.

2. In many fish there is a limit to their reproductive powers,
when worms make their appearance in their abdomen. These
worms are small living creatures, which expel the reproductive
substance. The small fry of the rhyas makes its appearance
in the spring, and that of many others about the
vernal equinox. Other fish do not produce at this season of
the year, but in the summer or near the autumnal equinox.

3. The atherina produces its young first of all, near the
land. The cephalus is the last. This is evident from the
small fry of the former appearing first, and that of the latter
last of all. The cestreus also produces among the first. The
salpa in most places deposits its ova during the summer, and
sometimes in the autumn. The aulopias, which they call
anthias, produces its ova in the summer season. After these
the chrysophrys, labrax, mormyrus, and all those which are
called dromades; the trigla and cocarinus are the latest of
all the gregarious fish. These oviposit in the autumn. The
trigla deposits her ova in the mud, which causes her to be
late, for the mud continues cold for a long while. The coracimus
is next to the trigla, and goes among the sea weed to
deposit her ova: consequently they frequent rocky places.
It continues pregnant for a long while. The mænides
oviposit at the winter solstice. Many other marine fish
oviposit in the summer, for they are not captured at this
period. The mænis is the most productive of all fish, and
[Pg 160]
the batrachus the most so among the selache. They are,
however, rare, for they perish very readily; they oviposit in
shoals and near the land.

4. The selache, as being viviparous, are less productive.
These are particularly preserved by their large size. The
belone is late in producing its young, and many of them are
burst by their ova in the act of parturition; for these ova
are not so numerous as they are large. They surround the
parent as if they were phalangia; for she produces them
attached to herself, and if any one touches them they make
their escape. The atherina deposits her ova by rubbing her
abdomen against the sand. The thynni burst with fat. They
live two years. The fishermen argue thus: when the thynnides
fail one year, the thynni fail the year after. They
appear to be a year older than the pelamus.

5. The thynni and scombri copulate at the end of February,
and produce their young at the beginning of June.
They produce their ova, as it were, in a purse. The growth
of the thynnides is rapid; for when these fish produce their
young in the Pontus, they produce from the ovum creatures
which some persons call scordylæ, and the Byzantines call
auxidæ, because they grow in a few days. They go out in
the autumn with the thynnus, and return in the spring as
pelamides. Nearly all other fish grow rapidly, but those in
the Pontus more rapidly than in other places; for the amiæ
there increase visibly every day. It is necessary to remember
that the same fish have not in the same place the
identical time of coition and gestation, nor the same period
of reproduction and completion of their offspring. For those
which are called coracini produce their ova at the time of
wheat harvest, though, generally speaking, the order of their
reproduction is that which I have mentioned.

6. The conger also becomes pregnant, though this circumstance
is not equally distinct everywhere on account of its
fat; for the organ of reproduction is long, like that of serpents.
It becomes distinct, however, when laid upon the
fire; for the fat smokes and consumes away, and the ova,
when pressed, jump out with a cracking noise. If any
person will feel and rub them with the finger, the fat will
appear smooth and the ova rough to the touch. Some congers
have fat but no ova; and others, on the contrary, have
[Pg 161]
no fat but such ova as I have described. We have now
treated of nearly all the oviparous animals, whether furnished
with fins, or wings, or feet, and of their sexual intercourse,
gestation, development, and such like subjects.

Chapter XVII.

1. We must now treat of the nature of viviparous animals with
feet and of man at this period. We have already treated in
general and in particular of their mode of coition. It is
common to all animals to be elevated with the desire and
pleasure of sexual intercourse. The females become savage
when their young are produced, the males at the season of
coition; for horses bite each other and drive about and pursue
their riders. The wild boars are very savage at this season,
although coition renders them weak.

2. And they fight wonderfully among themselves, and
make themselves as it were breastplates, and render their
skin callous beforehand by rubbing themselves against trees
and frequently wallowing in the mud and drying themselves.
They fight together and drive each other out of the herd so
fiercely, that not rarely both of them perish in the fight.
The same is the nature of bulls, rams, and goats; for although
at other seasons they pasture together, at the period of copulation
they quarrel and fight together. The male camel
also is violent at this time, whether it is a man or a camel that
approaches him, and he will at all times fight with a horse.

3. The nature of wild animals is the same. For bears,
wolves, and lions are savage if they are approached at this
season; but they do not quarrel much among themselves,
for none of them are gregarious. The she bears are savage
in defence of their cubs, and bitches for their puppies. Elephants
also become wild at this period. Wherefore they say
that in India those who have the care of them do not permit
them to have sexual intercourse with the females; for they
become mad at such season and overturn the houses, which
are badly built, and do many other violent acts. They say
also that abundance of food will render them more gentle.
They also bring others among them which are directed to
beat them, and so they punish them and reduce them to a
state of discipline.

4. Those creatures which have frequent sexual intercourse,
[Pg 162]
like domestic animals, as the hog and dog, appear to be less
influenced by these circumstances on account of the frequency
of their coition. Of all females the mare is the most
violent in her sexual desires, and then the cow. Mares are
subject to the affection called hippomania, and this name is
transferred from this single animal to intemperate and lascivious
persons. They are said to be affected by the wind at
such seasons: wherefore in Crete they never separate the
stallions from the mares. When the mares are thus affected,
they separate themselves from the other horses. In swine
the same affection is called καπρίζειν, to desire the boar.
They never run to the east or the west, but either north or
south.

5. When they suffer from this affection, they will allow
no one to approach them, till they either are so fatigued that
they can go no further, or come to the sea: they then eject
some substance, which has received the name of hippomanes,
like that on a new-born colt. It resembles the capria of
the sow. Poisoners diligently seek for this substance. At
the season of sexual intercourse they lean upon each other
more than at other times, and move their tails, and utter a
different sound from that which is common to them. A
fluid like semen also flows from their genital organs, but it
is much more thin than that of the male; and some persons
call this fluid hippomanes, though it is not that
which is produced upon colts. It is difficult to collect
this fluid, for it does not appear in large quantities.
When they are desirous of sexual intercourse, they often
make water, and sport together: this is the nature of
horses.

6. Cows desire the bull. They are so taken up by their
passion, that the cowherds cannot manage them. Mares
and cows shew the vehemence of their desire by the swelling
of their genital parts. Cows also, like mares, make water
very frequently. The cows also mount upon the bull, and
follow, and stand beside him. The younger animals, both
among horses and oxen, are the first to desire sexual intercourse;
and in fine weather, when their health is good, the
vehemence of their desire is still stronger. If the manes
of the mares are cut, their desires become weaker, and they
are rendered more gentle.

[Pg 163]

7. The stallions recognise the mares of their own herds
by the scent; and if any strangers become mixed with them
a few days before the period of coition, they bite them till
they go away, and each stallion feeds apart with his own
mares. Thirty mares, or rather less, are given to each; and
if any male approaches, he turns and goes round the mares
in a circle, and then prepares to fight. If any one of the
females attempts to move, he bites and prevents her.

8. At the season of sexual intercourse the bull pastures
with the cows, and fights with other bulls: at other times
the sexes keep themselves separate: this is called ἀτιμαγελεῖν
(despising the herd); those in Epirus are often not seen for
three months: and generally all, or nearly all, wild animals,
do not herd with their females before the season of sexual
intercourse: but as soon as they come to puberty the males
separate themselves, and cease to feed with the females.
Sows, when they are urged by sexual desire, or, as it is
called, desire the boar (καπρᾳν), will even attack men.
In bitches this affection is called σκυζᾳν, to desire the
dog.

9. When females are urged with desire, their genital organs
are swollen with heat, and a fluid secretion takes place.
Mares scatter about a white fluid at this season. In no
creatures are the catamenia so abundant as in women. In
sheep and goats at the season of coition, there are certain
signs before copulation: there are also signs after copulation,
but these again cease till the period of parturition,
when they again occur. By this means shepherds understand
that they are about to produce their young. After
parturition there is a great purification, which at first is not
very full of blood, but becomes so afterwards.

10. In the cow, the ass, and mare, this purification is
abundant, on account of their great size; but still it is
small, considering how large they are. When the cow is
urged by desire, she undergoes a brief purification, about
half-a-cup full, or a little more. The time of this purification
is peculiarly the period for sexual intercourse. Of all quadrupeds
the mare suffers the least, and is the most cleanly in
parturition: neither is her loss of blood great considering
the size of the animal. In cows and mares, the failure of
the catamenia in the second, fourth, and sixth month is considered
[Pg 164]
as a sign of pregnancy; but it is not easy for anyone
to understand this, who does not follow and accustom himself
to them: and some persons are of opinion that they have
no catamenia. The female oreus has no catamenia, but her
urine is thicker than that of the male.

11. On the whole, the liquid excrements are thicker in
other animals than in man; and those of female sheep and
goats thicker than in the males of the same animal. That
of the she ass is thinner, of the cow is harsher, than of their
respective males. After parturition the urine of all creatures
becomes thicker, and especially in those which have no purification.
When females begin to feel sexual desires, their
milk is like pus; it afterwards becomes useful after parturition.
Sheep and goats become fat when they are pregnant,
and consume more food; and so do cows, and all other quadrupeds.

Chapter XVIII.

1. Generally speaking, the sexual desires of animals are
more violent in spring. They do not all, however, copulate
at the same seasons, but at the time of year which will cause
them to produce their young at the proper season. The
period of gestation in domestic swine is four months. They
never produce more than twenty pigs; and if they have
many, they cannot bring them all up. When aged, they
produce in the same manner, but they copulate more
slowly. They become pregnant with one act of coition;
but they submit themselves to the boar very frequently, on
account of their rejection of the capria after they are pregnant.
This takes place in all, but some will also eject the
semen.

2. If any of the pigs are injured or deteriorated during
pregnancy, it is called metachæron. This may take place in
any part of the uterus. In parturition the sow gives the
first teat to the first pig. It is not necessary that she should
go to the boar as soon as the sexual appetite is felt, or before
her ears begin to hang down; for otherwise she desires to
go again. If she goes to the boar when she is desirous of it,
the impregnation is complete in a single act of intercourse.
Barley is a proper food for the boar at the period of coition.
It should be cooked for the female after parturition. Some
[Pg 165]
sows produce excellent pigs from the first; others do not
produce good offspring and pigs till they are grown up.
Some persons say that if one of the eyes of a sow is put out,
she generally speaking dies very soon. Most of them live
fifteen. Some die in less than twenty years.

Chapter XIX.

1. Sheep become pregnant after three or four acts of sexual
intercourse. If rain falls after the act of intercourse, it
must be repeated. The nature of goats is the same. They
generally produce two, and sometimes three. Cases have
occurred of their producing four. The period of gestation
in the sheep and goat is five months; and in some places,
where the weather is warm and fine, and food is abundant,
they have young twice a-year. The goat will live eight
years. The sheep lives ten years, or generally rather less;
but the leaders of the flock live fifteen years; for in every
flock they select one of the males as a leader, who, when
called by the shepherd, places himself at the head of the
flock. They are accustomed to this duty even when young.
In Ethiopia the sheep live twelve or thirteen years, and the
goats ten or eleven.

2. Both the sheep and goat enjoy sexual intercourse as
long as they live. Sheep and goats produce twins, if either
the pasture is good, or the ram or he-goat, or the ewe
belongs to a race producing twins. They produce females
or males both from the nature of the water (for there are
some waters that cause them to produce males and others
females) and from their manner of sexual intercourse; and
if the wind is northward during copulation they produce
males; and if it is southward, females; and one which naturally
produces females will change its nature and produce
males; so that it is necessary to see that they stand to the
north during the act of sexual intercourse. If any are accustomed
to copulate early, and the ram is introduced to
them late, they will not endure it.

3. The lambs are white or black according as the veins
beneath the tongue of the ram are white or black; for the
lambs are white if the veins are white, and black if they are
black. If they are both black and white, the lambs also are
of two colours; and if red, then the lambs are red. They
[Pg 166]
are more ready for sexual intercourse if they drink salt
water; so that they should be supplied with salted water
both before and after parturition, and again in the spring.
The herdsmen do not constitute any leader among the flocks
of goats, because it is not their nature to be stationary, but
they are active and ready to move from place to place. If
the older sheep prepare for sexual intercourse at the proper
time, the shepherds consider it a sign of a good year for the
sheep; if the younger ones are ready first, it will be a bad
sheep year.

Chapter XX.

1. There are many kinds of dogs. The Lacedemonian dogs,
both male and female, begin to have sexual intercourse at
eight months old. Some also lift their leg to make water
about this period. The bitch becomes pregnant with a single
act of coition; this is particularly evident in those which perform
the act in secret, for they become pregnant when once
united. The period of gestation in the Lacedemonian bitch
is the sixth part of a year, that is sixty days, or it may be one,
two, or three days more or less. The puppies when they
are born are blind for twelve days. The bitch is ready for
sexual intercourse six months after she has produced her
young, and not sooner. In some the period of gestation
is the fifth part of a year, this is seventy-two days. The
puppies of such bitches are blind for fourteen days. Others
are pregnant the fourth part of a year, that is three whole
months; their puppies are blind seventeen days. The female
appears to desire the male for the same length of time.

2. The catamenia in bitches last for seven days, and at
the same time the genital organs are swollen with heat;
during this period they will not endure coition, but during
the seven days which follow, for they all appear usually to
desire the male for fourteen days. This affection continues
in some for sixteen days. The purification from parturition
takes place at the birth of the young ones; it is thick
and phlegmatic, and the quantity produced in parturition
is small in proportion to the size of the body.[212]
Bitches generally have milk five days before parturition; in
[Pg 167]
some cases it appears seven, and in others four days beforehand;
the milk is good as soon as the young are born. The
Lacedemonian bitch gives milk in thirty days after sexual
intercourse; at first it is thick, but becomes thinner afterwards.
The milk of the bitch is thicker than that of other
animals, except the sow and the hare.

3. There is evidence of their having reached the age of puberty,
for as in the human subject the mammæ begin to
enlarge and become cartilaginous; it is, however, difficult to
detect this without practice, for the enlargement is not very
great. This takes place in the female, nothing of the kind
occurs in the male. The males generally begin to lift up their
leg to make water when they are six months old. Some do
not do so till they are eight months old, and others before
they are six months old, for, to speak plainly, they do this as
soon as they reach puberty; all the females sit down to make
water; some, however, even of these lift up their leg for
this purpose. The female never produces more than twelve
puppies, generally five or six, and sometimes only one;
those of Lacedæmon generally have eight; both sexes continue
to enjoy sexual intercourse as long as they live.

4. It is a peculiarity of the Lacedemonian dog, that it is
more ready for sexual intercourse after hard work than when
idle; the male of this kind lives ten years, the female for twelve,
most other dogs live fourteen or fifteen years, some even
twenty, for which reason some persons think that Homer is
right when he makes the dog of Ulysses to have died at
the age of twenty. On account of the hard work which the
Lacedemonian dogs have to endure the female lives longer
than the male; in other races this is not so plainly observed,
but the male is usually longer lived than the female. The
dog does not shed any teeth except those called the canine
teeth, these are shed by both sexes at four months old.
Because they shed these only, a question is raised, for some
persons altogether deny that they shed only two teeth, for
it is difficult to meet with these, and others, when they see
that they shed these, think that they must shed all their
teeth. People judge of the age of a dog by its teeth, for in
young dogs they are white and sharp, in old ones they are
black and blunted.

[Pg 168]

Chapter XXI.

1. The cow is impregnated with a single act of coition,
and the bull mounts upon her with such violence that she
bends beneath his weight. If he fails to impregnate her
after twenty days, she is again admitted to the bull. Old
bulls will not mount the same cow several times in the
same day unless there is some intermission, but young bulls,
incited by the strength of their desires, will force the same
cow several times, and will mount upon many in succession.
The bull is one of the least lascivious of animals. The
conqueror copulates with the female, but if he become impotent
from frequent sexual intercourse, the inferior will
attack him, and often prevail.

2. Both the male and the female commence sexual intercourse,
so as to produce young, at a year old, though not
generally till they are a year and eight months old, or two
years old according to general agreement. The female is
pregnant nine months, and produces her young in the tenth
month; some persons affirm that parturition takes place at
ten months to a day; if any of them calve before the above
mentioned time, the calf is abortive and does not live, and
even if born a little before the proper time it cannot live,
for the hoofs are imperfect. The female generally produces
one at a time, sometimes two. She continues to bear and
to have sexual intercourse as long as she lives.

3. The female usually lives fifteen years, and so does
the male if he is not castrated; some live for more than
twenty years if they have an active body. They usually
place castrated oxen as leaders of the herd, as they do in
sheep, and these live longer than the others, for they do
no work, and feed in a superior pasture. They attain perfection
at five years old, wherefore some say that Homer
was right when he spoke of the male flourishing at five
years old, and the cow at nine years old, for both expressions
have the same meaning.

4. Oxen change their teeth at two years old, not all of them,
however, but only like the horse; they do not cast their hoofs
when they are lame, but only swell very much about the
feet. The milk is good immediately after calving, but the
cow has no milk beforehand. The milk which is first formed
[Pg 169]
becomes hard like a stone when it is coagulated; this takes
place if it is not mixed with water. They do not produce
young before they are a year old, except in some remarkable
cases, for some have been known to copulate at four months
old. Most of them desire sexual intercourse in the months
of April and May. Some, however, are not impregnated
before the autumn. When many become pregnant and
admit the male, it is a sign of cold and rainy weather. The
usual discharges occur in cows as they do in mares, but the
quantity is less.

Chapter XXII.

1. Both the horse and mare begin to use sexual intercourse
at two years old. Such early cases, however, are rare, and
their offspring small and weak; and generally they commence
at three years old, and they continue to produce
better colts till they are twenty years old. The period of
gestation is eleven months; parturition takes place in the
twelfth. The male does not impregnate the female in any
particular number of days; but at times in one, two, or
three, sometimes in more. The ass mounts and impregnates
more quickly than the horse; and the act of intercourse is
not laborious in horses as it is in oxen. Next to the human
subject, the horse in both sexes is the most lascivious of all
animals. The sexual intercourse of the younger horses takes
place before the usual age according to the goodness and
abundance of their food. The horse generally produces but
one colt, or sometimes two at the outside. The hemionus has
also been known to produce two, but this is considered extraordinary.
The horse begins sexual intercourse at thirty
months old, so that it can produce proper colts when it has
done changing its teeth. Some have been known, they say,
to impregnate mares while changing their teeth, unless they
were naturally barren.

2. The horse has forty teeth. It sheds its four first teeth
at thirty months old, two above and two below. A year
afterwards, it sheds four more in the same manner, two
above and two below. And again, at the end of the next
year, it sheds four more in the same manner. When it is
four years and a half old, it sheds no more; and individuals
have been known to shed them all at first, and others that
[Pg 170]
have shed them all in the last year. These circumstances
are rare, so that it usually happens that the horse is most
fit for sexual intercourse at four years and a half old. The
older horses are more full of semen, both the males and the
females, than younger ones. Horses will copulate both with
their dams and with their offspring; and it is thought to be
a sign that the herd is complete, when they copulate with
their offspring. The Scythians ride upon their pregnant
mares when the embryo begins to turn in the uterus, and
say that it renders parturition more easy. All other quadrupeds
lie down in the act of parturition; wherefore their
young are always produced lying on their side; but when
the mare feels that the time for parturition is approaching,
she stands upright to part with her colt.

3. Horses generally live eighteen or twenty years; some
live twenty-five or thirty years; but if they are carefully
treated, their life may be extended to fifty years. Thirty
years, however, is a very long life for the male, and twenty-five
for the female. Some have been known to live forty
years. Males live a shorter time than females, on account
of the act of sexual intercourse; and those that are brought
up separately longer than those which live in herds. Females
attain their proper length and height in five years;
the males in six. In six more years the fulness of body is
acquired, which continues till they are twenty years old.
The females attain perfection more rapidly than the males;
but in the uterus the males are the more rapidly developed.
This is also the case in the human subject. This also takes
place in those animals which produce several at a birth.

4. They say that the mule sucks for six months, but the
mare will not permit it to come afterwards, because it
drags and hurts her. The horse sucks for a longer time.
The horse and the mule attain perfection after casting
their teeth; and when they have cast them all, it is not
easy to know their age. Wherefore they say that, before
casting its teeth, the horse has its mark, which it has not
afterwards. After the teeth have been changed, the age
is usually ascertained by the canine tooth; for that in
riding horses is generally worn down, for the bridle rubs
against it. In horses which have not been ridden, it is large
and not worn. In young horses it is small and sharp.

[Pg 171]

5. The male copulates at all seasons, and as long as he
lives; the female also as long as she lives; and at all seasons,
unless they have on a fastening or some other hindrance, no
peculiar time is appropriated for copulation in either sex,
for there is no period of coition when they cannot also bring
up their young. In Opus there was a horse in a herd
which engendered when he was forty years old; but it was
necessary to lift up his fore legs for him. Mares begin to
desire sexual intercourse in the spring; and when the mare
has foaled, she does not become pregnant again immediately,
but waits for a time, and produces better foals at the end of
four or five years. It is quite necessary that she should
wait one year, and should pass through a fallow, as it were.

6. The horse, then, bears young at intervals, as I have
observed; but the ass is not subject to intervals. Some
mares are quite barren, and others, though they conceive,
yet do not produce their young; and they give as a reason
for this, that upon dissection the fœtus was found to contain
other reniform bodies round the kidneys, so that it appeared
to have four kidneys. As soon as the mare has foaled, she
eats the chorion, and bites from the head of her foal the
substance called hippomanes. In size this substance is
somewhat less than a dry fig. Its form is flat and round,
and its colour black. If any person is at hand to take it
before the mare, and she smells it, the scent renders her
wild and mad. For this reason it is sought after and collected
by poisoners. If an ass copulates with a pregnant
mare, the pre-existing fœtus is destroyed. Those who keep
herds of horses do not place a leader over them, as they do
over oxen, for they are not naturally stationary, but active
and wandering.

Chapter XXIII.

1. The male and female ass begin to copulate at thirty
months old, and shed their first teeth at the same period.
They lose their second pair of teeth six months afterwards,
and their third and fourth in the same way. These fourth
teeth are called the marking teeth. Sometimes the ass has
become pregnant and brought up its young at a year old.
The she ass parts with the semen after coition, if she is not
prevented; and therefore, immediately after coition, they
[Pg 172]
beat her and drive her about. She foals in the twelfth
month, and generally produces one foal, for this is their
nature, though cases of twin births have occurred. If an
ass mounts upon a mare, he destroys her fœtus, as I observed
before. But the horse does not destroy the fœtus of the
ass, if the mare has been impregnated by a he ass.

2. The pregnant female has milk at the end of ten months.
After parturition, she will admit the male on the seventh
day, and is very easily impregnated at that period. She
will also receive it afterwards. If she does not produce
young before losing her marking teeth, she can never be
impregnated all the rest of her life. She does not like men
to be witnesses of her parturition, nor will she produce her
young in the day time; but when it is dark she retires, and
so produces her young. She continues to procreate during
her whole life, if she has begun before losing her marking
teeth. The ass lives more than thirty years, and the female
longer than the male. When a horse copulates with an ass,
or a he ass with a mare, abortion is more frequent than between
congeners, a horse with a mare, or two asses together.
When the horse and ass are mixed together, the period of
gestation follows from the male parent. I mean to say that
it takes the same time as if the parents had been congeners;
but in size, form, and strength the produce of their union
generally resembles the female parent.

3. If the union takes place frequently, and sufficient time
is not allowed to intervene, the female soon becomes barren.
For which reason those who attend to this business do not
permit them to have continual intercourse, but interpose a
proper interval. The mare will not admit the he ass, nor
the she ass the horse, unless the he ass has been suckled by
a mare. They are careful, therefore, to admit only those
asses which they call hippothelæ, i.e. asses which have been
suckled by a mare. These copulate by force in the pastures,
like horses.

Chapter XXIV.

1. The oreus (mule) mounts and copulates after shedding
the first teeth, and when seven years old is able to engender;
and the ginnus is produced when he mounts upon a mare.
After this he no longer continues to copulate. The female
[Pg 173]
oreus also has been impregnated, but the fœtus has never
been known to come to maturity. The hemioni (female
mules) of Syria, near Phœnicia, admit the male and procreate.
The kind, however, though similar, is not the same.
Those which are called ginni are produced from a mare,
when the fœtus has received some injury in the uterus, like
dwarfs among men and metachœra among swine; and the
ginnus, like the dwarf, has a large genital organ.

2. The hemionus has a long life; for they have been
known to live for eighty years, as in Athens, when they
built the temple, this individual, though failing with age,
helped in drawing, and went beside them, and encouraged
the yoke mules to their work, so that an edict was
made, commanding the corn-dealers not to drive it away
from the vessels filled with corn. The female mule (oreus)
grows old sooner than the male. Some persons say that she
is purified when making water, but the male ages more
rapidly from smelling the urine.

3. This is the manner of the reproduction of these animals.
Those who are employed in bringing up these animals
recognize the young from the old in this way. If the skin,
when drawn back from the cheek, soon recovers its shape,
the animal is young; if the skin continues wrinkled for a
long while, the creature is aged.

Chapter XXV.

1. The camel is pregnant ten months, and always produces
a single young one, for this is its nature. They separate
the young camel from the herd at a year old. The camel
will live more than fifty years. The season of parturition
is in the spring, and the female continues to give milk until
she conceives again. Their flesh and milk are exceedingly
sweet. The milk is drunk mixed with two or three times
its quantity of water.

2. Elephants begin to copulate at twenty years old. When
the female is impregnated, her period of gestation, some persons
say, is a year and a half; other people make it three
years. The difficulty of seeing their copulation causes this
difference of opinion respecting the period of gestation. The
female produces her young bending upon her haunches.
Her pain is evident. The calf, when it is born, sucks with
[Pg 174]
its mouth, and not with its proboscis. It can walk and see
as soon as it is born.

3. Wild swine copulate at the beginning of winter. They
produce their young in the spring. For this purpose the
female gets away into inaccessible and precipitous places,
where there are caves and plenty of shade. The males remain
with the females for thirty days. The number of pigs
and the period of gestation are the same as in the domesticated
herd, and their voices are much alike: the female,
however, grunts more and the male less. The castration of
the male makes them larger and more fierce, as Homer
writes. “He brought up a castrated wild boar, which was not
like a beast fed upon food, but resembled a woody mountain
peak.” Castration takes place from a disease like a
swelling in the testicles, which they rub against the trees
and so destroy them.

Chapter XXVI.

1. The female deer usually copulates, as I observed before,
from allurement; for she cannot endure the male on account
of the hardness of the penis. Some, however, endure copulation
as sheep do. When sexual desire is felt, they lie
down beside each other. The male is changeable in his disposition,
and does not unite himself to a single female, but
in a short time leaves one for another. The season for
sexual intercourse is in August and September, after Arcturus.
The period of gestation is eight months. The female
becomes pregnant in a few days, and frequently in one day.

2. She generally produces one fawn, though some have
been known to bear twins. She produces her young by the
road side, for fear of wild beasts. The growth of the fawns
is rapid. The female has no purification at other times, but
after parturition her cleansing is sanguineous. The female
usually conducts her fawn to some accustomed place, which
serves them for a refuge. It is usually an opening in a
rock, with but one entrance, where they can defend themselves
against those who would attack them.

3. There are fables about their long life. They do not,
however, appear to be worthy of credit; and the period of
gestation and growth of the young does not agree with the
habits of long-lived animals. In the mountain called Elaphoïs,
[Pg 175]
in Arginusa, in Asia, where Alcibiades died, all the
deer have their ears divided, so that they can be known if
they migrate to another place, and even the fœtus in utero
has this distinction. The females have four nipples, like
cows.

4. As soon as the females are impregnated, the males go
and live apart from them, and, urged by their sexual desires,
they each go apart and make a hole, in which they emit a
strong smell like he goats, and their faces become black, by
being sprinkled like those of goats. This continues till
after rain, when they turn again to their pasture. The
animal acts in this way on account of its violent sexual desires
and its fatness. In summer time this is so great
that they cannot run, but are taken by those who pursue
them, even on foot, in the second or third race.

5. They frequent the water both on account of the heat
and the difficulty of breathing. At the period of sexual
intercourse, their flesh is inferior both in taste and smell,
like that of he-goats. In winter they are thin and weak,
and in the spring are most active for the chase. When
chased, they sometimes rest awhile, and remain standing till
their pursuers come up with them, when they start afresh.
They seem to do this from a pain in their intestines; for
their viscera are so thin and weak that if they are only
struck gently they are ruptured, though the hide remains
sound.

Chapter XXVII.

1. Bears perform the act of sexual intercourse in the manner
already described, not mounting upon each other, but
lying down upon the ground. The female is pregnant thirty
days, when she produces one or two, or at the outside five
cubs. The fœtus is smaller, in proportion to the size of the
parent, than that of any other animal; for it is less than a
weasel, and greater than a mouse. It is without hair and
blind, and its legs and almost all its parts are without
joints. Its season of sexual intercourse is in March.
The cubs are born at the time of concealment. At this
season both the female and the male are very fat. When
they have brought up their young, they show themselves
in the third month of the spring. The porcupine also
[Pg 176]
conceals itself, and is pregnant for the same number of
days, and in other respects resembles the bear. It is very
difficult to capture the she bear when pregnant.

Chapter XXVIII.

1. It has already been observed that the lion both copulates
and makes water backwards. They do not copulate and
produce their young at all seasons of the year, though they
produce annually. The young are produced in the spring.
The female generally produces two, never more than six,
and sometimes only one. The fable which says that the
uterus is ejected in parturition is a mistake. It has arisen
from the rarity of the animal, those who invented the fable
being ignorant of the true state of the case. The race of
lions is rare, and not to be found in every place, but only in
the country between the Achelous and the Nessus in the
whole of Europe. The young of the lion are very small at
their birth, so that they can hardly walk at two months old.
The Syrian lions produce five times; at first five cubs, and
then one less every time. After this they produce no more,
but continue barren. The lioness has no mane, though the
lion has. The lion only sheds its four canine teeth, two
above and two below. They are shed when the animal is
six months old.

2. The hyæna is of the colour of the wolf, but it is more
hairy, and has a mane along the ridge of its back. It is a
mistake to say that each individual has the sexual organs of
both sexes. That of the male resembles the same organ in
the wolf and the dog. That which has been imagined to be
the female organ is placed beneath the tail, and it resembles
that of the female, but is imperforate, and the anus is beneath
it. The female hyena has an organ similar to that
which bears its name in the male. It is placed beneath the
tail, and is imperforate. Beneath this is the anus, and below
this again the true genital organ. The female hyena has an
uterus like that of other animals of the class, but the female
is rarely captured. A certain hunter said that he caught
eleven hyænas of which only one was a female.

3. Hares copulate backwards, as I formerly observed, for
it is a retromingent animal. They copulate and produce
[Pg 177]
their young at all seasons. They become pregnant a second
time while they are pregnant, and produce their young every
month. They do not produce their young continually, but
as many days as may be intervene. The female has milk
before the young are produced. As soon as her young are
born, she copulates again and conceives while giving milk.
The milk is as thick as that of the sow. The young are
born blind, like those of many animals with divided feet.

Chapter XXIX.

1. The fox copulates, mounting on the back of the female.
The young are born blind, like those of the bear, and are
even more inarticulate. When the season of parturition
approaches, the female goes apart, so that it is rare to take
a pregnant fox. When the young are born, the dam licks
them, in order to warm and mature them. She never produces
more than four.

2. The periods of gestation and parturition, both in point of
time and the number of the young, are the same in the wolf as
in the dog, and the young are blind, like those of the dog.
They copulate at one season of the year, and the young are
produced in the beginning of summer. A fabulous story
is told of their parturition; for they say that all the she
wolves produce their young in twelve days in the year; and
the reason which is given for this fable is this, that during this
number of days Latona was brought from the Hyperborean
regions to Delos, in the form of a wolf, for fear of Juno.
Whether this is or is not the period of parturition has never
yet been ascertained. At present it only rests upon tradition.
It does not appear to be true, nor that other tale
which says that wolves only produce once in their life.

3. Cats and ichneumons produce their young in the same
manner as dogs, and live upon the same things. They live
about six years. The young of the panther are born blind.
They are never more than four in number. The jackal
is impregnated like a bitch, and the young are born blind.
They produce two, or three, or four. Its length towards
the tail is great. Its height is small. It runs very swiftly,
although its legs are short; but on account of the softness
of its tissues it can leap a great distance.

4. In Syria there are animals called hemioni which are
[Pg 178]
different from those derived from a mixture of the horse and
ass, though they resemble them in appearance. As the wild
ass is named from its resemblance to the domestic kind, the
wild asses and the hemioni differ from the domestic race in
speed. These hemioni are derived from their own congeners,
of which this is a proof. For some came to Phrygia in the
time of Pharnaces, the father of Pharnabazus, and remain
there still. There are now only three, though they say that
at first there were nine.

Chapter XXX.

1. The reproduction of mice is more wonderful than that
of any other animal, both in number and rapidity. For a
pregnant female was left in a vessel of corn; and after a
short time the vessel was opened, and a hundred and twenty
mice were counted. There is a doubt respecting the reproduction
and destruction of the mice which live on the
ground; for such an inexpressible number of field mice have
sometimes made their appearance that very little food remained.
Their power of destruction also is so great that
some small farmers, having on one day observed that their
corn was ready for harvest, when they went the following
day to cut their corn, found it all eaten.

2. The manner of their disappearance also is unaccountable;
for in a few days they all vanish, although beforehand
they could not be exterminated by smoking and
digging them out, nor by hunting them and turning swine
among them to root up their runs. Foxes also hunt them
out, and wild weasels[213] are very ready to destroy them; but
they cannot prevail over their numbers and the rapidity of
their increase, nor indeed can anything prevail over them
but rain, and when this comes they disappear very soon.

3. In a certain part of Persia the female fœtus of the mice
are found to be pregnant in the uterus of their parent.
Some people say and affirm that if they lick salt they become
pregnant without copulation. The Egyptian mice have hair
nearly resembling that of the hedgehog. There are other
kinds which go upon two feet, for their fore feet are small
and their hind feet large.[214] They are very numerous. There
are also many other kinds of mice.

BOOK THE SEVENTH.

Chapter I.

1. The circumstances attending on the growth of man, from
his conception in the womb even to old age, derived from his
peculiar nature, are after this manner. We have already
treated of the distinctions of the male and female and their
parts. The male begins to have semen at about the age of
fourteen complete. At the same time hair begins to appear on
the pubes. As Alcmæon of Crotona says that flowers blossom
before they bear seed, about the same period the voice begins
to become more harsh and irregular. It is neither quite
harsh, nor deep, nor all alike, but it resembles a discordant
and harsh instrument. This is called τραγίζειν, to have a
voice like a goat.