CiiAP. XII. FISHES. 21 



in colour may be observed, *' whether they lay their 

 " eirgs in the water among aquatic plants, or deposit 

 " them in holes, leaving^ them to come out without 

 *' further care, or build shallow nests in the river-mud, 

 " over which they sit, as our Promotis does. It ought 

 ^' also to be observed that these sitters are among the 

 " brightest species in their respective families ; for 

 " instance, Hygrogonus is bright green, with large 

 " black ocelli, encircled with the most brilliant red." 

 Whether with all the species of Chromids it is the male 

 alone which sits on the eggs is not known. It is, 

 however, manifest that the fact of the eggs being pro- 

 tected or unprotected, has had little or no influence on 

 the differences in colour between the sexes. It is fur- 

 ther manifest, in all the cases in which the males take 

 exclusive charge of the nests and young, that the 

 destruction of the brisrhter-coloured males would be far 

 mora influential on the character of the race, than the 

 destruction of the brighter-coloured females ; for the 

 death of the male during the period of incubation or 

 nursing would entail the death of the young, so that 

 these could not inlierit his peculiarities ; yet, in many 

 of these very cases the males are more conspicuously 

 coloured than the females. 



In most of the Lophobranchii (Pipe-fish, Hippo- 

 campi, &c.) the males have either marsupial sacks or 

 hemispherical depressions on the abdomen, in which 

 the ova laid by the female are hatched. The males 

 also shew ^reat attachmeiit to their vouno:.^ The 

 sexes do not commonly differ much in colour ; but Dr. 

 Giinther believes that the male Hippocampi are rather 

 brighter than the females. The genus Solenostoma, 



35 Yarrell, 'Hist, of British Fislies,' vol. ii. 1836, p. 829, 338. 



