Latin Texts & Translations

The females of fishes are larger ^[Note] in size than the males, and in some kinds there are no males ^[Note] at all, as in the erythini ^[Note] and the channi; ^[Note] for all of these that are taken are found to

be full of eggs. Nearly all kinds of fish that are covered with scales are gregarious. They are most easily taken before sunrise; ^[Note] for then more particularly their powers of seeing are defective. They sleep during the night; and when the weather is clear, are able to see just as well then as during the day. It is said, also, that it greatly tends to promote their capture to drag the bottom of the water, and that by so doing more are taken at the second haul ^[Note] than at the first. They are especially fond of the taste of oil, and find nutriment in gentle showers of rain. Indeed, the very reeds, ^[Note] even, although they are produced in swamps, will not grow to maturity without the aid of rain: in addition to this, we find that wherever fishes remain constantly in the same water, if it is not renewed they will die.