592 



TELEOSTEI 



In this family the eggs and young are usually looked after by 

 the parents. Aristotle observed that the male of the European 

 Silurus glanis watches over and defends the eggs. In one of 

 the commonest North American Cat-Fishes, Amiurus nebulosus, 

 a species which has been largely introduced into some parts of 

 Europe of late, now thriving in many ponds and more or less 

 polluted streams of the Continent, the eggs are deposited near 

 the banks of weedy ponds and rivers without currents, in con- 

 cealed places beneath logs, stumps, or even in pails or other 

 receptacles, failing which both parents join in excavating a sort 

 of nest in the mud, a work often requiring two or three days of 

 incessant labour. The male watches over the eggs, and later 

 leads the young in great schools near the shore, seemingly caring 

 for them as the hen for her chickens. 1 The Doras and the 

 Callichthys of South America, according to Hancock z and Vipan, 3 



FIG. 358. Callichthys littoralis, from South America. nat. size. 



build regular nests of grass or leaves, sometimes placed in a hole 

 scooped out in the bank, in which they cover their eggs and 

 defend them, male and female sharing in this parental duty. In 

 the likewise South American Corydoras (Callichthys paleatus), as 

 observed by Carbonnier, 4 a lengthy courtship takes place, followed 

 by an embrace, during which the female receives the seminal 

 fluid in a sort of pouch formed by the folded membranes of her 

 ventral fins ; immediately after, five or six eggs are produced and 

 received in the pouch, to be afterwards carefully placed in a 

 secluded spot. This operation is repeated many times, until the 

 total number of eggs, about 250, have been deposited. In 



1 Cf. Eycleshjnner, Amer. Nat. 1901, p. 911. 



2 Zool. Journ. iv. 1829, p. 245. 3 P.Z.S. 1836, p. 330. 



4 Butt. Soc. Zool. France, 1880, p. 288. 



