48 Papers from the Department of Marine Biology. 



account is from the pen of the indefatigable French aquarist of the 

 third quarter of the last century, P. Carbonnier. Describing a Chinese 

 macropode (1869, 1869a), he writes of the male that, after extrusion 

 and fertilization of the eggs: 



"He patiently gathers in his mouth the eggs scattered on all sides and 

 carries them under the roof of foam which becomes then for some ten days 

 the object of his solicitude. Without even taking food, he passes his time in 

 watching over the receptacle of his progeny. If one part of the nest begins 

 to empty itself he fills it with new bubbles ; he withdraws the eggs where they 

 seem to him to be in too great numbers and carries them into empty places ; 

 with blows of his head he disperses the eggs if too much accumulated. When 

 hatching is over he watches with some care over the young embryons; he chases 

 down those which leave the protecting roof, and holding them in his mouth 

 brings them back. He does not cease this surveillance until the too large 

 number of fugitives announces to him that his part is played and that the 

 young family is able to look after its own protection. " 



Again, in 1872 Carboanier described similar habits for a "Macropode 

 of China," which may or may not have been identical with the fish 

 described above. In this case, however, both the male and the 

 female took up the young. "I saw the female place in the mouth 

 of the male the slender little [sick] fry which would have certainly 

 perished without intelligent paternal care." Some years later Car- 

 bonnier (1875, 1876) describes how the paternal rainbow fish, Colisa 

 arc-en-ciel, collects the scattered eggs and embryos in his mouth and 

 transports them to the nest. 



Belonging to the same group of fishes is the fighting fish, Betta 

 pugnax, whose breeding habits are interestingly described by Waite 

 (1904). This fish is so named because it is bred and trained for 

 fighting by the Siamese. Waite describes in detail its breeding habits, 

 but we are interested here only in its collecting the scattered eggs in 

 its mouth and transporting them to the nest. Waite also (1905) 

 finds a similar habit practiced by the paradise fish, Polyacantlnis 

 opercularis, the other Macropodes being probably cultivated varie- 

 ties of this fish. Here again the female assists the male in collecting 

 the eggs and carrying them to the nest made of foam. In one case the 

 fish retained the eggs in the mouth for the space of one minute, this 

 being a matter worthy of particular note in this connection. 



And last of all for the osphromenid fishes, we find an identical 

 habit described in Zernecke's Leitfaden for 1907 in the male of 

 Macropodus viridi-auratus, which is a cultivated variety of Polya- 

 canihus opercularis. 



There must now be noted certain isolated instances of mouth 

 carrying by fishes, the last of which brings us close up to the gaff- 

 topsail. In the year 1874 Carbonnier described the breeding habits 

 of a fish exotic in France (having been imported from North America) , 

 which he called Fundula cyprinodonta. Dr. Theodore Gill, however, 



