River-fish and lake-fish are best after they have discharged the
spawn in the case of the female and the milt in the case of the
male: that is, when they have fully recovered from the exhaustion of
such discharge. Some are good in the breeding time, as the saperdis,
and some bad, as the sheat-fish. As a general rule, the male fish is
better eating than the female; but the reverse holds good of the
sheat-fish. The eels that are called females are the best for the
table: they look as though they were female, but they really are not
so.
Book IX
1
OF the animals that are comparatively obscure and short-lived
the characters or dispositions are not so obvious to recognition as
are those of animals that are longer-lived. These latter animals
appear to have a natural capacity corresponding to each of the
passions: to cunning or simplicity, courage or timidity, to good
temper or to bad, and to other similar dispositions of mind.
Some also are capable of giving or receiving instruction-of
receiving it from one another or from man: those that have the faculty
of hearing, for instance; and, not to limit the matter to audible
sound, such as can differentiate the suggested meanings of word and
gesture.
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