FISHES 169 



A tempest may scatter the eggs far and wide, when the 

 dauntless parent frantically attempts to collect and re- 

 assemble them. 



Sea Horses, represented on our coasts by the nearly- 

 related Pipefishes (Syngnathidae\ take extraordinary care of 

 their progeny. There is first an elaborate courtship, 

 in which the fish intertwine their bodies, the male caressing 

 his partner with his tubular snout. Finally the two 

 interlock and the female presses the eggs into a kangaroo- 

 like pouch situated on her consort's abdomen and composed 

 of two large flaps of skin which overlap. Here the eggs 

 remain until ripe, when the male liberates the fry by bending 

 his body, or even manipulating the skin flaps with his 

 tail. The emergent young do not, however, leave their 

 parent immediately, for often they cluster about him, 

 perching on his attenuated person by means of their long 

 prehensile tails. 



Most remarkable of all sea fish nurseries is that of the 

 GafF-topsail Catfish, a species ranging along the South 

 Atlantic coast. The male imitates certain fresh- water 

 fishes in carrying its eggs in its mouth, some fifty odd 

 ova being thus incubated, the young remaining with the 

 parent some time after they have hatched. The eggs are 

 very large in proportion to the fish, and fry four inches in 

 length have been found in the mouth of a twenty-inch 

 parent. How the eggs are fertilised and placed in the 

 paternal mouth is not at present known. They are probably 

 — as in the case of the Egyptian Perch {V aratilapid) — 

 laid on the floor and picked up by the parent. 



As previously mentioned, fish partnerships appear to 

 be of one season's duration only, but there is a possible 



