Page - 992 - in The Complete Aristotle

hard; with regard to the organs connected with the other senses, hearing and smell, they are devoid alike of the organs themselves and of passages indicative of them. Fishes without exception are supplied with blood. Some of them are oviparous, and some viviparous; scaly fish are invariably oviparous, but cartilaginous fishes are all viviparous, with the single exception of the fishing-frog. < div id=“section31” class=“section” title=“14”> 14 Of blooded animals there now remains the serpent genus. This genus is common to both elements, for, while most species comprehended therein are land animals, a small minority, to wit the aquatic species, pass their lives in fresh water. There are also sea-serpents, in shape to a great extent resembling their congeners of the land, with this exception that the head in their case is somewhat like the head of the conger; and there are several kinds of sea- serpent, and the different kinds differ in colour; these animals are not found in very deep water. Serpents, like fish, are devoid of feet. There are also sea-scolopendras, resembling in shape their land congeners, but somewhat less in regard to magnitude. These creatures are found in the neighbourhood of rocks; as compared with their land congeners they are redder in colour, are furnished with feet in greater numbers and with legs of more delicate structure. And the same remark applies to them as to the sea- serpents, that they are not found in very deep water. Of fishes whose habitat is in the vicinity of rocks there is a tiny one, which some call the Echeneis, or ‘ship-holder’, and which is by some people used as a charm to bring luck in affairs of law and love. The creature is unfit for eating. Some people assert that it has feet, but this is not the case: it appears, however, to be furnished with feet from the fact that its fins resemble those organs. So much, then, for the external parts of blooded animals, as regards their numbers, their properties, and their relative diversities. < div id=“section32” class=“section” title=“15”> 15 992