It matters also whether the wind be from the north or
south: the longer fish thrive better when a north wind prevails, and
in summer at one and the same spot more long fish will be caught
than flat fish with a north wind blowing.
The tunny and the sword-fish are infested with a parasite
about the rising of the Dog-star; that is to say, about this time both
these fishes have a grub beside their fins that is nicknamed the
'gadfly'. It resembles the scorpion in shape, and is about the size of
the spider. So acute is the pain it inflicts that the sword-fish
will often leap as high out of the water as a dolphin; in fact, it
sometimes leaps over the bulwarks of a vessel and falls back on the
deck. The tunny delights more than any other fish in the heat of the
sun. It will burrow for warmth in the sand in shallow waters near to
shore, or will, because it is warm, disport itself on the surface of
the sea.
The fry of little fishes escape by being overlooked, for it is
only the larger ones of the small species that fishes of the large
species will pursue. The greater part of the spawn and the fry of
fishes is destroyed by the heat of the sun, for whatever of them the
sun reaches it spoils.
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