324 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



are furnished with teeth. As the fish grows, the scapular 

 horn disappears, the ventral fins grow, and the upper jaw is 

 developed in excess of the lower. The long teeth disappear, 

 and the upper jaw grows into the toothless sword-like weap- 

 on which gives the fish its peculiar character. 



CURIOUS HABITS OF FISHES. 



No group of animals appears to have so many peculiarities 

 in connection with the act of reproduction and the treatment 

 of the eggs and young as fish, and Mr. W. Saville Kent has 

 lately announced quite a new illustration of this fact in the 

 London Fiel'd, as shown by observations made at the West- 

 minster Aquarium upon the crested blenny of England. On 

 one occasion his attention was attracted to certain bead-like 

 bodies attached to the fins of one of the specimens lately re- 

 ceived. These proved to be eggs, but it was not yet certain 

 whether they were carried by the male or the female fish. 

 Generally, where the eggs are protected by the parent, it is 

 the male that assumes this duty. In the pipe-fish and sea- 

 horse especially, the eggs, when laid by the female, are car- 

 ried under the abdomen of the male until hatched. 19^, 

 August Id, 21Q. 



MALE EOTIFER. 



Mr. Henry Davis has succeeded in observing the male of 

 the well-known Conochiliis volvox. In the clear jelly in 

 which these animals live two distinct kinds of eggs may be 

 found the female egg, transparent and nearly colorless; the 

 other kind (ephippial of Huxley) somewhat larger, nearly 

 opaque, and reticulated with dark lines within the shell ; 

 it is sometimes, though erroneously, called " winter-egg ;" 

 these are probably destined to preserve the species through 

 the drought to which the ponds that the animals flourish in 

 are constantly liable. A third kind, the male Qgg, is more 

 rarely seen : it is transparent, showing the male neatly 

 packed up, but even at this tender age restless and gymnas- 

 tic beyond belief The male, beyond his rarity, has little in 

 him to admire. lie is scarcely larger than the head of one 

 of his sisters, and his constant endeavor while under the mi- 

 croscope is to prove himself without form and void ; to 

 simulate a preternaturally lively Amoeba, and as soon as 



