CHAP. 23.—WHAT KINDS OF FISHES HAVE NO MALES.
The females of fishes are larger2369 in size than the males, and in some kinds there are no males2370 at all, as in the erythini2371 and the channi;2372 for all of these that are taken are found to be full of eggs. Nearly all kinds of fish that are covered with scales are gregarious. They are most easily taken before sunrise;2373 for then more particularly their powers of seeing are defective. They sleep during the night; and when the weather is clear, are able to see just as well then as during the day. It is said, also, that it greatly tends to promote their capture to drag the bottom of the water, and that by so doing more are taken at the second haul2374 than at the first. They are especially fond of the taste of oil, and find nutriment in gentle showers of rain. Indeed, the very reeds,2375 even, although they are produced in swamps, will not grow to maturity without the aid of rain: in addition to this, we find that wherever fishes remain constantly in the same water, if it is not renewed they will die.