The females of fishes are larger[2369] in size than the males, and in some kinds there are no males[2370] at all, as in the erythini[2371] and the channi;[2372] 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;[2373] 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[2374] 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,[2375] 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. CHAP. 24.—FISHES WHICH HAVE A STONE IN THE HEAD; THOSE WHICH KEEP THEMSELVES CONCEALED DURING WINTER; AND THOSE WHICH ARE NOT TAKEN IN WINTER, EXCEPT UPON STATED DAYS. All fish have a presentiment of a rigorous winter, but more especially those which are supposed to have a stone[2376] in the head, the lupus,[2377] for instance, the chromis,[2378] the sciæna,[2379] and the phagrus.[2380] When the winter has been very severe, many fish are taken in a state of blindness.[2381] Hence it is, that during these months they lie concealed in holes, in the same manner as land animals, as we have already[2382] mentioned; and more especially the hippurus,[2383] and the coracinus,[2384] which are never taken during the winter, except only on a few stated days, which are always the same. The same with the muræna[2385] also, and the orphus,[2386] the conger,[2387] the perch,[2388] and all the rock-fish. It is said that, during the winter, the torpedo,[2389] the psetta,[2390] and the sole, conceal themselves in the earth, or rather, I should say, in excavations made by them at the bottom of the sea. CHAP. 25.—FISHES WHICH CONCEAL THEMSELVES DURING THE SUMMER; THOSE WHICH ARE INFLUENCED BY THE STARS. Other fishes,[2391] again, are unable to bear the heat of summer, and lie concealed during the sixty days of the hottest weather of midsummer; such, for instance, as the glaucus,[2392] the asellus,[2393] and the dorade.[2394] Among the river-fish, the silurus[2395] is affected by the rising of the Dog-star, and at other times it is always sent to sleep by thunder. The same is also believed to be the case with the sea-fish called cyprinus.[2396] In addition to this, the whole sea is sensible[2397] of the rising of this star, a thing which is more especially to be observed in the Bosporus: for there sea-weeds and fish are seen floating on the surface, all of which have been thrown up from the bottom. CHAP. 26. (17.)—THE MULLET.