Some few
breed in autumn: as, for instance, the saupe and the sargus, and
such others of this sort as breed shortly before the autumn equinox;
likewise the electric ray and the angel-fish. Other fishes breed
both in winter and in summer, as was previously observed: as, for
instance, in winter-time the basse, the grey mullet, and the belone or
pipe-fish; and in summer-time, from the middle of June to the middle
of July, the female tunny, about the time of the summer solstice;
and the tunny lays a sac-like enclosure in which are contained a
number of small eggs. The ryades or shoal-fishes breed in summer.
Of the grey mullets, the chelon begins to be in roe between
the middle of November and the middle of December; as also the sargue,
and the smyxon or myxon, and the cephalus; and their period of
gestation is thirty days. And, by the way, some of the grey mullet
species are not produced from copulation, but grow spontaneously
from mud and sand.
As a general rule, then, fishes are in roe in the spring-time;
while some, as has been said, are so in summer, in autumn, or in
winter. But whereas the impregnation in the spring-time follows a
general law, impregnation in the other seasons does not follow the
same rule either throughout or within the limits of one genus; and,
further, conception in these variant seasons is not so prolific.
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