For no eel nor animal of
this kind is ever viviparous unless previously oviparous; and no eel
was ever yet seen with an egg. And animals that are viviparous have
their young in the womb and closely attached, and not in the belly;
for, if the embryo were kept in the belly, it would be subjected to
the process of digestion like ordinary food. When people rest
duality of sex in the eel on the assertion that the head of the male
is bigger and longer, and the head of the female smaller and more
snubbed, they are taking diversity of species for diversity of sex.
There are certain fish that are nicknamed the epitragiae, or
capon-fish, and, by the way, fish of this description are found in
fresh water, as the carp and the balagrus. This sort of fish never has
either roe or milt; but they are hard and fat all over, and are
furnished with a small gut; and these fish are regarded as of
super-excellent quality.
Again, just as in testaceans and in plants there is what bears and
engenders, but not what impregnates, so is it, among fishes, with
the psetta, the erythrinus, and the channe; for these fish are in
all cases found furnished with eggs.
As a general rule, in red-blooded animals furnished with feet
and not oviparous, the male is larger and longer-lived than the female
(except with the mule, where the female is longer-lived and bigger
than the male); whereas in oviparous and vermiparous creatures, as
in fishes and in insects, the female is larger than the male; as,
for instance, with the serpent, the phalangium or venom-spider, the
gecko, and the frog.
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