The historie of the vvorld: commonly called, The naturall historie of C. Plinius Secundus. Translated into English by Philemon Holland Doctor of Physicke. The first [-second] tome

CHAP. LI.

¶ More as touching the generation of fishes, and which they be that do spawne in man∣ner of egges.

THe spawne or egs of Fishes in the sea, do grow vnto perfection, some of them exceeding scon, as that of the Lampreies: others are later ere they do so. All flat and broad Fishes, [unspec B] such namely as haue no tails and sharp pricks to hinder (as haue the Thorn-backe, Skate, and Tortoises) when they engender, leap one another. The many foot Pour-cuttles in this acti∣on fasten one of their winding clawes to the nose of the female. The Cuttels and Calamaries do the feat with their tongues or pipes rather thrust into their mouthes, clasping one another with their arms, and swimming one contrary to the other: and as they conceiue at the mouth, so they deliuer their fruit again at the mouth. This onely is the difference, that the she Calama∣ries in this busines, beare their heads downward to the earth. As for those that are soft crusted, they do it backward as dogs. Thus the Lobsters & Shrimpes ingender. Crabs at the mouth. Frogs leap one another: the male with the fore-feet clasps the arm-pits of the female, and with the hind-feet the hanches. That which is ingendred and brought forth, is as it were some little [unspec C] mites of blackish •…•…esh, which they call Tadpoles or Polwigs, shewing no good form, but that they haue some shew of eies only, and a taile. Some few daies after, their feet are framed, & then parts their taile in twain, which serueth for their feet behind. And a strange thing it is of them: after they haue liued some 6 months, they resolue into a slime or mud, no man seeth how: & af∣terward with the first rains in the Spring, returne again to their former state, as they were first shapen, no man knows after what sort, by a secret and vnknown way incomprehensible: notwith∣standing it fals out ordinarily so euery yere. As for the Limpins, Muskles, and Scallops, they breed of themselues in the mud and sands of the sea. Those which are of an harder coat, as the Pourcelanes and Purples, of a certain viscous and slimy substance like a muscilage. As for that little fry, resembling small gnats and flies of the sea, they come of a certaine putrifaction and [unspec D] sowernesse of the water: as the Apuae, which are the groundlings and Smies, of the some of the sea set in an heat & chafed after some good shewer. They that are couered with a stony shell, as Oisters, breed of the rotten and putrified slime & mud of the sea: or of the some that hath stood long about ships or stakes and posts set fast in the water, and especially if they bee of Holme wood. Howbeit, it hath bin found of late in Oister pits, that there passeth from them in stead of Sperm a certain whitish humor like milk. As for Yeels they rub themselues against rocks and stones, and those scrapings (as it were) which are fretted from them, in time come to take life and proue snigs, and no other generation haue they. Fishes of diuers kinds engender not one with another, vnlesse it be the Skate and the Raifish: and of them there commeth a fish, which in the forepart resembleth a Ray, & in Greek hath a name compounded of both [Rhinobatos.] [unspec E] Other fishes there be that breed indifferently on land and sea, according to the warme season of the yeare. In Spring time Scallops, Snailes, and Horsleeches do engender, and by the same warmth quicken and come to life; but in Autumne they turn to nothing. The Pike & Sardane breed twice a yere, like as al stone fish: the Barbels thrice, as also a kind of Turbit called Chal∣cis [i. the Shad:] the Carp 6 times: the Scorpenes and Sargi twice, namely, in Spring and Au∣tumne. Of flat broad Fishes, the Skate only twice in the yere, to wit, in Autumne, and at the set∣ting or occultation of the star Vergiliae. The greatest number of Fishes ingender for 3 moneths, April, May, & Iune. The Cods or Stockfishes in Autumne. The Sargi, Crampfishes, & Squali about the equinoctiall. Soft skinned Fishes in the spring: and the Cuttel in euery month. The [unspec F] spawn of this Fish, which hangeth together like a cluster of grapes, by the means of a certaine blacke glew or viscositie like inke, the Milter doth blow and breath vpon before it can bee good, for otherwise it commeth to no proofe. The Pour-cuttles engender in Winter, and in the Spring, and then bring forth a spawne crisped and curled (as it were) like the wreathing

branches and tendrils of a vine branch; and that in such plenty, that when they are killed they [unspec G] are not able to receiue and containe the multitude of their egs in the concauitie or ventricle of their head and belly, which they bare when they were great. They hatch them in fifty daies, but many of them proue addle and neuer come to good, there is such a number of them. The Lobsters and the rest with thin shels, lay egge after egge, and sit vpon them in that manner. The female Pourcuttle, one while sitteth ouer her egs, another while she couereth the cranie or gut∣ter where she hath laid them, with her clawes and arms enfolded crosse one ouer another lattise wise. The Cuttle laieth also vpon the dry land among the reeds, or els wheresoeuer she can find any sea-weeds or reits to grow, & by the 15 day hatcheth. The Calamaries lay egs in the deep, which hang close and thick together, as the Cuttles do. The Purples, Burrets, and such like, do lay in the Spring. The sea Vrchins are with egge euery full moone in the winter time: and the [unspec H] winkles or cocles are bred in the winter likewise. The Crampfish is found to haue 80 young at once within her, and hatcheth her tender and soft egs within her bodie, shifting them from one place of the wombe to another. In like manner do all they which are called Cartilagineus, or gristly. By which it commeth to passe, that fish alone both conceiue with egge, and yet bring forth a liuing creature. The male sheath-fish or riuer whale Silurus, of al others only is so kind as to keep and looke to the egs of the female after they be laid, many times for fifty daies after, for feare they should be deuoured of others. Other females hatch in three daies, if the male touch them. The Horne-beaks or Needle-fishes Belonae, are the only fishes which haue within them so great egs that their wombe cleaueth and openeth when they should lay them: but af∣ter that they be discharged of them, it groweth together and vniteth againe. A thing vsuall (as they say) in Blind-wormes. The fish called Mus-Marinus, diggeth a gutter or ditch within [unspec I] the ground, and there laieth her egs, and the same she couereth ouer with earth, and so lets them alone for 30 daies, then she commeth and openeth the place again, findeth her egs hatched, and leadeth her little ones to the water.