Habits and Adaptations 267 



the grunion's system, but being an inhabitant of tropical 

 fresh waters it has no tide to help it, and has to take the 

 parts played by the moon and sun itself. It spawns out of 

 water entirely. Through what feats of acrobatism can only 

 be imagined, the female sticks her eggs to a rock a little 

 above the surface, and the male then goes on duty to keep 

 them wet by splashing water on them until the young hatch. 

 Gilbert and Sullivan could not have thought of anything 

 more nonsensical, nor Alice's White Knight with his 



. . . "plan 

 To dye one^s whiskers green 

 And always use so large a fan 

 That they could not he seen. 



The little Cofeina described above shows a commendable 

 interest in the eggs after they are laid, but there are other 

 fish which go even further. Most touching instance of post- 

 natal care is the so-called "mouth-breeder." Here we have 

 a fish — a cold, dull, selfish animal in the eyes of most people 

 — going without food for weeks for the sake of its children. 

 This occurs not only among the cichlids, which we men- 

 tioned in the preceding chapter as outstanding examples of 

 parental solicitude, but also among the catfish. One of the 

 parents — ^in some species the mother, in some the father — 

 takes the eggs in the mouth after they are fertilized, and not 

 only holds them there throughout development, but also 

 holds a mouthful of squirming fry until the yolk-sac is ab- 

 sorbed. In spite of all temptations, no food is eaten. And in 

 the case of the cichlids the young, even after they are free- 

 swimming, return to the parental mouth each evening and 

 spend the night there until they are literally too big to 

 get in. 



The sea-horse is also a good parent but in a different way, 

 and here the father only officiates. For it is the male which 



