And with these fishes, like as with the marine
fishes, the female does not void all her eggs at one time, nor the
male his sperm; but they are at all times more or less provided, the
female with eggs, and the male with sperm. The-carp spawns as the
seasons come round, five or six times, and follows in spawning the
rising of the greater constellations. The chalcis spawns three
times, and the other fishes once only in the year. They all spawn in
pools left by the overflowing of rivers, and near to reedy places in
marshes; as for instance the phoxinus or minnow and the perch.
The glanis or 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 of its smoothness, the
fishermen in the marshes can unwind it off the reeds like threads
off a reel. 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 intertwine
with one another, a big with a little one, and bring into
juxtaposition the ducts-which some writers designate as navels-at
the point where they emit the generative products and discharge the
egg in the case of the female and the milt in the case of the male.
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