This phenomenon may be witnessed if any one will
pull asunder flies that are copulating; and, by the way, these
creatures are, under the circumstances, averse to separation; for the
intercourse of the sexes in their case is of long duration, as may be
observed with common everyday insects, such as the fly and the
cantharis. They all copulate in the manner above described, the fly,
the cantharis, the sphondyle, [the phalangium spider] any others of
the kind that copulate at all. The phalangia- that is to say, such of
the species as spin webs- perform the operation in the following way:
the female takes hold of the suspended web at the middle and gives a
pull, and the male gives a counter pull; this operation they repeat
until they are drawn in together and interlaced at the hinder ends;
for, by the way, this mode of copulation suits them in consequence of
the rotundity of their stomachs.
So much for the modes of sexual intercourse in all animals; but,
with regard to the same phenomenon, there are definite laws followed
as regards the season of the year and the age of the animal.
Animals in general seem naturally disposed to this intercourse at
about the same period of the year, and that is when winter is changing
into summer. And this is the season of spring, in which almost all
things that fly or walk or swim take to pairing. Some animals pair and
breed in autumn also and in winter, as is the case with certain
aquatic animals and certain birds. Man pairs and breeds at all
seasons, as is the case also with domesticated animals, owing to the
shelter and good feeding they enjoy: that is to say, with those whose
period of gestation is also comparatively brief, as the sow and the
bitch, and with those birds that breed frequently. Many animals time
the season of intercourse with a view to the right nurture
subsequently of their young. In the human species, the male is more
under sexual excitement in winter, and the female in summer.
With birds the far greater part, as has been said, pair and breed
during the spring and early summer, with the exception of the halcyon.
The halcyon breeds at the season of the winter solstice.
Accordingly, when this season is marked with calm weather, the name of
'halcyon days' is given to the seven days preceding, and to as many
following, the solstice; as Simonides the poet says:
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God lulls for fourteen days the winds to sleep
In winter; and this temperate interlude
Men call the Holy Season, when the deep
Cradles the mother Halcyon and her brood.
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And these days are calm, when southerly winds prevail at the
solstice, northerly ones having been the accompaniment of the Pleiads.
The halcyon is said to take seven days for building her nest, and the
other seven for laying and hatching her eggs. In our country there are
not always halcyon days about the time of the winter solstice, but in
the Sicilian seas this season of calm is almost periodical. The bird
lays about five eggs.
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9
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[The aithyia, or diver, and the larus, or gull, lay their eggs on
rocks bordering on the sea, two or three at a time; but the gull lays
in the summer, and the diver at the beginning of spring, just after
the winter solstice, and it broods over its eggs as birds do in
general. And neither of these birds resorts to a hiding-place.]
The halcyon is the most rarely seen of all birds. It is seen only
about the time of the setting of the Pleiads and the winter solstice.
When ships are lying at anchor in the roads, it will hover about a
vessel and then disappear in a moment, and Stesichorus in one of his
poems alludes to this peculiarity. The nightingale also breeds at the
beginning of summer, and lays five or six eggs; from autumn until
spring it retires to a hiding-place.
Insects copulate and breed in winter also, that is when the weather
is fine and south winds prevail; such, I mean, as do not hibernate, as
the fly and the ant. The greater part of wild animals bring forth once
and once only in the year, except in the case of animals like the
hare, where the female can become superfoetally impregnated.
In like manner the great majority of fishes breed only once a year,
like the shoal-fishes (or, in other words, such as are caught in
nets), the tunny, the pelamys, the grey mullet, the chalcis, the
mackerel, the sciaena, the psetta and the like, with the exception of
the labrax or basse; for this fish (alone amongst those mentioned)
breeds twice a year, and the second brood is the weaker of the two.
The trichias and the rock-fishes breed twice a year; the red mullet
breeds thrice a year, and is exceptional in this respect. This
conclusion in regard to the red mullet is inferred from the spawn; for
the spawn of the fish may be seen in certain places at three different
times of the year. The scorpaena breeds twice a year. The sargue
breeds twice, in the spring and in the autumn. The saupe breeds once a
year only, in the autumn. The female tunny breeds only once a year,
but owing to the fact that the fish in some cases spawn early and in
others late, it looks as though the fish bred twice over. The first
spawning takes place in December before the solstice, and the latter
spawning in the spring. The male tunny differs from the female in
being unprovided with the fin beneath the belly which is called
aphareus.
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Of cartilaginous fishes, the rhina or angelfish is the only one that
breeds twice; for it breeds at the beginning of autumn, and at the
setting of the Pleiads: and, of the two seasons, it is in better