I. INTRODUCTION. 



One who spends much time on the Great Lakes or about the neighboring 

 inland waters comes now and then upon men who have chanced to see the nests 

 of Amia, or the swarms of young guarded by the male. Upon the bits of real fact 

 thus gleaned the fishermen of the region have based certain plausible explanations 

 or myths, to which I shall return. This popular knowledge seems to have 

 first come into print through Dr. Estes (Hallock, '77). From time to time efforts 

 have been made by zoologists to procure the eggs of Amia. Professor Whit- 

 man's final success and the further work of Dean, Virchow, Fiilleborn, Ayers, and 

 Eycleshymer are discussed in detail by Whitman and Eycleshymer ('97). These 

 observers concerned themselves chiefly with the collection of embryological material. 

 Their observations on the breeding habits of the fish were, for this reason appar- 

 ently, incidental and fragmentary and have resulted in unfortunate differences 

 of opinion. 



Neglecting the earlier account of Dr. Estes (Hallock, '77), the following brief sum- 

 mary is believed to cover the essential facts upon which Fiilleborn ('94), Dean ('96, 

 '96 a , '98), and Whitman and Eycleshymer ('97) are in agreement. In April and 

 May the fish make their appearance in shallow water and there prepare nests, 

 approximately circular areas on the bottom from which the vegetation has been 

 largely removed. The concave bottom of such a nest consists usually of the fibrous 

 roots of water plants, though sometimes of gravel or of the water-soaked parts of 

 dead water plants. The nests are found in water of one to two feet in depth; and 

 the adhesive eggs are attached to their sides and bottoms. The male fish remains 

 over or near the nest for eight to ten days, at the end of which time the eggs are 

 hatched. 



The newly hatched young adhere to the material at the bottom of the nest by 

 means of a peculiar adhesive organ at the end of the snout. After a time the young 

 fish leave the nest with the male, and for some weeks they remain together in a dense 

 swarm which is attended by the male and thus protected. When the young fish have 

 reached a certain undetermined size they are no longer found together in swarms. 



My own interest in the subject dates from 1891, when I came by chance upon a 

 nest of Amia. From that time until 1898 I collected the eggs nearly every season 



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