All fishes, both those that wander about and those that are
stationary, occupy the districts where they were born or very
similar places, for their natural food is found there. Carnivorous
fish wander most; and all fish are carnivorous with the exception of a
few, such as the mullet, the saupe, the red mullet, and the chalcis.
The so-called pholis gives out a mucous discharge, which envelops
the creature in a kind of nest. Of shell-fish, and fish that are
finless, the scallop moves with greatest force and to the greatest
distance, impelled along by some internal energy; the murex or
purple-fish, and others that resemble it, move hardly at all. Out of
the lagoon of Pyrrha all the fishes swim in winter-time, except the
sea-gudgeon; they swim out owing to the cold, for the narrow waters
are colder than the outer sea, and on the return of the early summer
they all swim back again. In the lagoon no scarus is found, nor
thritta, nor any other species of the spiny fish, no spotted
dogfish, no spiny dogfish, no sea-crawfish, no octopus either of the
common or the musky kinds, and certain other fish are also absent; but
of fish that are found in the lagoon the white gudgeon is not a marine
fish.
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