The Politics of Aristotle

by Aristotle

  9 · Peafowl live for about twenty-five years, breed about the third year, and [25] at the same time take on their spangled plumage. They hatch their eggs within thirty days or rather more. The peahen lays but once a year, and lays twelve eggs, or may be a slightly lesser number: she does not lay all the eggs one after the other, but at intervals of two or three days. Such as lay for the first time lay about eight eggs. [30] The peahen lays wind-eggs. They pair in the spring; and laying begins immediately after pairing. The bird moults when the earliest trees are shedding their leaves, and [564b1] recovers its plumage when the same trees are recovering their foliage. People that rear peafowl put the eggs under the domestic hen, owing to the fact that when the peahen is brooding over them the peacock attacks her and tries to trample on them; owing to this circumstance some birds of wild varieties run away from the males and [5] lay their eggs and brood in solitude. Only two eggs are put under a hen, for she could not brood over and hatch a large number. They take every precaution, by supplying her with food, to prevent her going off the eggs and discontinuing the brooding.

  With male birds about pairing time the testicles are larger than at other times, [10] and this is conspicuously the case with the more salacious birds, such as the domestic cock and the cock partridge; the peculiarity is less conspicuous in such birds as are intermittent in regard to pairing.

  10 · So much for the conception and generation of birds.

  It has been previously stated that fishes are not all oviparous. The selachia are [15] viviparous; the rest are oviparous. And the selachia are first oviparous internally and subsequently viviparous; they rear the embryos internally, the fishing-frog being an exception.

  [20] Fishes also, as was above stated, are provided with wombs of diverse kinds. The oviparous genera have wombs bifurcate in shape and low down in position; the selachia have wombs shaped like those of birds; but they differ in this respect from the womb of birds, that with some the eggs do not settle close to the diaphragm but middle-ways along the backbone, and as they grow they shift their position.

  [25] The egg with all fishes is not of two colours but is of even hue; and the colour is nearer to white than to yellow, and that both when the young is inside it and previously as well.

  Development from the egg in fishes differs from that in birds in this respect, that it does not exhibit that one of the two navel-strings that7 leads off to the [30] membrane that lies close under the shell, while it does exhibit that one of the two that in the case of birds leads off to the yolk. In a general way the rest of the development from the egg onwards is identical in birds and fishes. That is to say, development takes place at the upper part of the egg, and the veins extend in like manner, at first from the heart; and at first the head, the eyes, and the upper parts [565a1] are largest; and as the creature grows the egg decreases and eventually disappears and becomes absorbed within the embryo, just as takes place with the yolk in birds.

  [5] The navel-string is attached a little way below the mouth to the belly. When the creatures are young the navel-string is long, but as they grow it diminishes in size; at length it gets small and becomes incorporated, as was described in the case of birds. The embryo and the egg are enveloped by a common membrane, and just under this is another membrane that envelops the embryo by itself; and in between [10] the two membranes is a liquid. The food inside the stomach of the little fishes resembles that inside the stomach of young chicks, and is partly white and partly yellow.

  As regards the shape of the womb, the reader is referred to the Anatomies. The womb, however, is diverse in diverse fishes, as for instance in the dogfish as [15] compared one with another or as compared with the flat fish. That is to say, in some dogfish the eggs adhere in the middle of the womb round about the backbone, as has been stated, and this is the case with the ‘puppy’; as the eggs grow they shift their place; and since the womb is bifurcate and adheres to the midriff, as in the rest of [20] similar creatures, the eggs pass into one or other of the two compartments. This womb and the womb of the other dogfish exhibit, as you go a little way off from the midriff, something resembling white breasts, which never make their appearance unless there be conception.

  ‘Puppies’ and rays have a kind of egg-shell, in which is found an egg-like liquid. [25] The shape of the egg-shell resembles the tongue of a bagpipe, and hair-like ducts are attached to the shell. With the puppy which is called by some the dappled dogfish, the young are born when the shell-formation breaks in pieces and falls out; with the ray, after it has laid the egg the shell-formation breaks up and the young [30] move out. The spiny dog-fish has its eggs close to the midriff above the breast-like formations; when the egg descends, as soon as it gets detached the young is born. The mode of generation is the same in the case of the fox-shark. [565b1]

  The so-called smooth dogfish has its eggs in between the wombs like the ‘puppy’; these eggs shift into each of the two horns of the womb and descend, and the young develop with the navel-string attached to the womb, so that, as the eggs get used up, the embryo is sustained to all appearance just as in the case of [5] quadrupeds. The navel-string is long and adheres to the under part of the womb (each navel-string being attached as it were by a sucker), and also to the centre of the embryo in the place where the liver is situated. If the embryo be cut open, even though it has the egg no longer, the food inside is egg-like. Each embryo, as in the [10] case of quadrupeds, is provided with a chorion and separate membranes. When young the embryo has its head upwards, but downwards when it gets strong and is completed in form. Males are generated on the left-hand side of the womb too, and females on the right-hand side, and males and females on the same side together. If [15] the embryo be cut open, then, as with quadrupeds, such internal organs as it is furnished with, as for instance the liver, are found to be large and supplied with blood.

  All selachia have at one and the same time eggs above close to the midriff (some larger, some smaller), in considerable numbers, and also embryos lower down. And this circumstance leads many to suppose that fishes of this species pair [20] and bear young every month, inasmuch as they do not produce all their young at once, but now and again and over a lengthened period. But such eggs as have come down below within the womb are simultaneously ripened and completed in growth.

  Dog-fish in general can extrude and take in again their young, as the angel-fish and the electric ray—and a large electric ray has been seen with about eighty [25] embryos inside it—but the spiny dog-fish is an exception to the rule, being prevented by the spine of the young fish from so doing. Of the flat fish, the trygon and the ray cannot take in again in consequence of the roughness of their tails. The fishing-frog also is unable to take in its young owing to the size of the head and the [30] prickles; and, as was previously remarked, it is the only one of these fishes that is not viviparous.

  So much for the varieties of the selachia and for their modes of generation from the egg. [566a1]

  11 · At the breeding season the sperm-ducts of the male are filled with milt, so much so that if they be squeezed the sperm flows out as a white fluid; the ducts are bifurcate, and start from the midriff and the great vein. About this period the [5] sperm-ducts of the male are quite distinct [from the womb of the female],8 but at any other than the actual breeding time their distinctness is not obvious to a non-expert. The fact is that in certain fishes at certain times these organs are imperceptible, as was stated regarding the testicles of birds.

  Among other distinctions observed between the milt ducts and the womb-ducts [10] is the circumstance that the former are attached to the loins, while the womb-ducts move about freely and are attached by a thin membrane. The particulars regarding [15] the milt ducts may be studied by a reference to the diagrams in the Anatomies.

  Selachia are capable of superfoetation, and their period of gestation is six months at the longest. The so-called starry dog-fish bears young the most frequently; in other words it bears twice a month. The breeding-season begins in the month of
Maemacterion. The dog-fish as a general rule bear twice in the year, with the exception of the ‘puppy’ which bears only once a year. Some of them bring forth [20] in the springtime. The angel-fish bears its first brood in the springtime, and its second in the autumn, about the winter setting of the Pleiads; the second brood is the stronger of the two. The electric ray brings forth in the late autumn.

  Selachia come out from the main seas and deep waters towards the shore and [25] there bring forth their young, and they do so for the sake of warmth and by way of protection for their young.

  No fish has been observed to mate outside its own kind, except the angel-fish and the ray; for there is a fish called the rhinobatus, with the head and front parts of [30] the ray and the after parts of the angel-fish, just as though it were made up of both fishes together.9

  Dog-fish then and their congeners, as the fox-shark and the hound, and the flat fishes, such as the electric ray, the ray, the smooth skate, and the trygon, are first [566b1] oviparous and then viviparous in the way above mentioned.

  12 · The dolphin, the whale, and all the rest of the cetacea, all, that is to say, that are provided with a blow-hole instead of gills, are viviparous; so too are the saw-fish and the ox-fish. That is to say, no one of all these fishes is ever seen to be [5] supplied with eggs, but directly with an embryo from whose differentiation comes the fish, just as in the case of mankind and the viviparous quadrupeds.

  The dolphin bears one at a time generally, but occasionally two. The whale bears one or at the most two, generally two. The porpoise in this respect resembles [10] the dolphin; for it is in form like a little dolphin, and is found in the Euxine; it differs, however, from the dolphin as being less in size and broader in the back; its colour is blue-black. Many people are of opinion that the porpoise is a variety of the dolphin.

  All creatures that have a blow-hole respire and inspire, for they are provided [15] with lungs. The dolphin has been seen asleep with his nose above water, and when asleep he snores.

  The dolphin and the porpoise are provided with milk, and suckle their young. They also take their young, when small, inside them. The young of the dolphin grows rapidly, being full-grown at ten years of age. Its period of gestation is ten [20] months. It brings forth its young in summer, and never at any other season; and under the Dog-star it actually disappears for about thirty days. Its young accompany it for a considerable period; and, in fact, the creature is remarkable for the strength of its parental affection. It lives for many years; some are known to have lived for more than twenty-five, and some for thirty years; the fact is fishermen nick their tails sometimes and set them adrift again, and by this expedient their ages [25] are ascertained.

  The seal is an ambivalent animal: that is to say, it does not take in water, but breathes and sleeps and brings forth on dry land—only close to the shore—as being an animal furnished with feet; it spends, however, the greater part of its time in the [30] sea and derives its food from it, so that it must be classed in the category of marine animals. It is viviparous by immediate conception and brings forth its young alive, and exhibits an after-birth and all else just like a ewe. It bears one or two at a time, [567a1] and three at the most. It has two teats, and suckles its young like a quadruped. Like the human species it brings forth at all seasons of the year, but especially at the time when the earliest kids are forthcoming. It conducts its young ones, when they are about twelve days old, over and over again during the day down to the sea, [5] accustoming them by slow degrees to the water. It slips down steep places instead of walking, from the fact that it cannot steady itself by its feet. It can contract and draw itself in, for it is fleshy and soft and its bones are gristly. Owing to the flabbiness of its body it is difficult to kill a seal by a blow, unless you strike it on the [10] temple. It lows like a cow. The female in regard to its genital organs resembles the cow; in all other respects it resembles the female of the human species.

  So much for the phenomena of generation and of parturition in animals that [15] live in water and are viviparous either internally or externally.

  13 · Oviparous fishes have their womb bifurcate and placed low down, as was said previously—and all scaly fish are oviparous, as the basse, the mullet, the grey mullet, and the etelis, and all the so-called white-fish, and all the smooth fish [20] except the eel—and their egg is of a crumbling substance. This seems to be one10 because the whole womb of such fishes is full of eggs, so that in little fishes there seem to be only a couple of eggs there; for in small fishes the womb is indistinguishable, from its diminutive size and thin contexture. The pairing of fishes [25] has been discussed previously.

  Fishes for the most part are divided into males and females, but one is puzzled to account for the erythrinus and the channa, for specimens of these species are never caught except in a condition of pregnancy.

  With such fish as pair, eggs are the result of copulation, but such fish have them also without copulation; and this is shown in the case of some river-fish, for the [30] minnow has eggs when quite small,—almost, one may say, as soon as it is born. These fishes shed their eggs, and, as is stated, the males swallow the greater part of them, and some portion of them goes to waste in the water; but such of the eggs as [567b1] the female deposits in suitable places are saved. If all the eggs were preserved, each species would be vast in number. The greater number of these eggs are not productive, but only those over which the male sheds the milt; for when the female has laid her eggs, the male follows and sheds its milt over them, and from all the [5] eggs so besprinkled young fishes proceed, while the rest are left to their fate.

  The same phenomenon is observed in the case of cephalopods also; for in the case of the cuttlefish, after the female has deposited her eggs, the male besprinkles [10] them. It is reasonable to suppose that a similar phenomenon takes place in regard to cephalopods in general, though up to the present time the phenomenon has been observed only in the case of the cuttlefish.

  [Fishes deposit their eggs close in to shore, the goby close to stones; and the spawn of the goby is flat and crumbly. Fish in general so deposit their eggs; for the water close in to shore is warm and is better supplied with food, and serves as a [15] protection to the spawn against the voracity of the larger fish. And it is for this reason that in the Euxine most fishes spawn near the mouth of the river Thermodon, because the locality is sheltered, genial, and supplied with fresh water.

  Oviparous fish as a rule spawn only once a year. The black goby is an [20] exception, as it spawns twice; the male of the black goby differs from the female as being blacker and having larger scales.]11

  Fishes then in general produce their young by copulation, and lay their eggs; but the pipe-fish, as some call it, when the time of parturition arrives, bursts in two, [25] and the eggs escape out. For the fish has a cleft under the belly and abdomen (like the blind snakes), and after it has spawned the sides of the split grow together again.

  Development from the egg takes place similarly with fishes that are oviparous internally and with fishes that are oviparous externally; that is to say, the embryo comes at the upper end of the egg and is enveloped in a membrane, and the eyes, [30] large and spherical, are the first organs visible. From this circumstance it is plain that it is not true, as some say, that they develop in the same way as creatures that come from grubs; for the opposite phenomena are observed in the case of these latter, in that their lower extremities are the larger at the outset, and that the eyes [568a1] and the head appear later on.

  After the egg has been used up, the young fishes are like tadpoles in shape, and at first, without taking any nutriment, they grow by sustenance derived from the juice oozing from the egg; by and by, they are nourished up to full growth by the river-waters.

  [5] [When the Euxine is ‘purged’ a substance called phycus is carried into the Hellespont, and this substance is of a pale yellow colour. Some writers aver that it is the flower of the phycus, from which rouge is made; it comes at the beginning of summer.
Shellfish and the small fish of these localities feed on this substance, and [10] some of the inhabitants of these maritime districts say that the purple murex derives its peculiar colour from it.]12

  14 · Marsh-fishes and river-fishes conceive at the age of five months as a general rule, and deposit their spawn towards the close of the year without exception. And with these fishes, as with the marine fishes, the female does not void [15] all her eggs at one time, nor the male his milt; but they are at all times more or less provided, the female with eggs, and the male with milt. The carp spawns as the seasons come round, five or six times, and follows in spawning the rising of the stars. The chalcis spawns three times, and the other fishes once only in the year. They all [20] spawn in pools left by the overflowing of rivers, and near to reedy places in marshes; as for instance the minnow and the perch.

  The sheat-fish and the perch deposit their spawn in one continuous string, like the frog; so continuous, in fact, is the convoluted spawn of the perch that, by reason [25] of its smoothness, the fishermen in the marshes can unwind it off the reeds. The larger individuals of the sheat-fish spawn in deep waters, some in water of a fathom’s depth, the smaller in shallower water, generally close to the roots of the willow or of some other tree, or close to reeds or to moss. At times these fishes [30] intertwine with one another, a big with a little one; and, bringing into juxtaposition the ducts—which some writers designate as navels—at the point where they emit [568b1] the generative products, the one discharges the egg and the other the milt. Such eggs as are besprinkled with the milt grow, in a day or thereabouts, whiter and larger, and in a little while afterwards the fish’s eyes become visible, for these [5] organs in all fishes, as for that matter in all other animals, are early conspicuous and seem disproportionately big. But such eggs as the milt fails to touch remain, as with marine fishes, useless and infertile. From the fertile eggs, as the little fish grow, a kind of sheath detaches itself; this is a membrane that envelops the egg and the [10] young fish. When the milt has mingled with the eggs, the resulting product becomes very sticky and adheres to the roots of trees or wherever it may have been laid. The male keeps on guard at the principal spawning-place, and the female after spawning goes away.13