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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 nas 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 rops[191] is the only bird that makes its nests in caverns in the earth. The cichl[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.
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 chalaz 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.
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.
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.
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.
1. The eagle produces three eggs, of which two only are hatched. This is also related in the poems of Musus. 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 tolian 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ftus, 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 phocna is similar to the dolphin, for it is like a small dolphin. It is produced in the Pontus. In some respects the phocna 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 phocna 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 phocna 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 mamm, 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.
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 typhlin.[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.
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.
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 mnidia,[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 aphy 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 trichi 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 mnis 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.
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.
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 mnides oviposit at the winter solstice. Many other marine fish oviposit in the summer, for they are not captured at this period. The mnis 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 scordyl, and the Byzantines call auxid, 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 ami 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.
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 , 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 (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 (), will even attack men. In bitches this affection is called , 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.
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 metachron. 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.
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.
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 mamm 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 Lacedmon 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]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.
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 ftus 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 ftus 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.
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 ftus, as I observed before. But the horse does not destroy the ftus 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 hippothel, i.e. asses which have been suckled by a mare. These copulate by force in the pastures, like horses.
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 ftus has never been known to come to maturity. The hemioni (female mules) of Syria, near Phnicia, 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 ftus has received some injury in the uterus, like dwarfs among men and metachra 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.
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.
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 Elaphos, [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 ftus 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.
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 ftus 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.
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 hyna 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 hynas 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.
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.
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 ftus 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.
