268 The Life Story of the Fish 



has on its abdomen a pouch very much like the marsupial 

 pouch of the female kangaroo. In this pouch the eggs are 

 placed by the mother as she lays them, and here they remain 

 until the young are able to swim. Then, with a series of 

 convulsive movements which make the father look as if he 

 were in great distress, he forces open the pouch, and the 

 little ones are expelled, sometimes one at a time and some- 

 times in swarms. It looks exactly as if the father were giving 

 birth. 



And in a very different species the father, incredible as it 

 may sound, actually does give birth — or, to put it more cor- 

 rectly, the same fish which at one time in its life gives birth 

 later becomes a father. For in one of the live-bearers, Xy- 

 fhofhorusy the sword-tail, authentic records are numerous 

 of complete change of sex. An individual starts life as a 

 female, becomes a mother, and gives birth to numerous 

 offspring. After some years of this she gets tired of males, 

 starts taking up with other females, and before long has 

 fathered numerous offspring. As one ichthyologist described 

 it, "A mother becomes the father of her own grand- 

 daughter." It seems a happy division of domestic labors, 

 and one which human beings might well envy. After a youth- 

 ful probationary period during which she underwent the 

 trials, as well as the joys, of womanhood and motherhood, 

 the individual, instead of becoming barren in middle life, 

 would turn into a man, enjoying thenceforth masculine free- 

 dom from physical and domestic woes, and assuming mascu- 

 line responsibilities. What wise old men we should have! 

 For it is difficult for even the most sensitive of us fully to 

 appreciate situations w^hich we have not personally experi- 

 enced j but an old man who had been in his earlier days 

 maiden, wife, and mother would be capable of a boundless 

 sympathy for and understanding of all mankind. 



And now we come to the climax, the ultimate height, the 



