A SIGNIFICANT CASE OF HERMAPHRODITISM IN FISH. 2 11 



with the milt of just such a male as this seemed to be, I attempted, 

 without further examination, to strip milt from the specimen. 

 Instead of milt a stream of eggs issued from the short genital 

 tube at the base of the anal fin. I knew, of course, that fish fre- 

 quently eat eggs and pass them undigested through the digestive 

 tract, but such eggs are always dead and opaque, while these 

 eo-CTs were normally transparent. Surprised at the extrusion of 

 eggs from an individual supposedly male I proceeded to make a 

 careful examination. This revealed the fact that the fish was 

 male only in one respect. It showed the cross-banded body 

 pattern of the male very distinctly. It lacked, however, the 

 characteristic spot on the dorsal fin, the large size of dorsal and 

 anal fins, contact organs, and intensified pigment of the typical 

 male ; while it possessed the distended abdomen soft flesh, lighter 

 ground color, small fins, and external oviducal tube of the spawn- 

 ing female. Yet I had never before seen an adult or even a 

 juvenile female without longitudinal stripes distinctly indicated. 

 The specimen seemed sufficiently unusual to deserve a separate 

 aquarium, where it was well fed and relieved of its burden of 

 eggs several times during the ensuing fortnight. These eggs 

 showed a rather low degree of fertility, although at least ten per 

 cent, developed in each case. 



After about a week a typically marked female of about the 

 same size was introduced into the special aquarium for the sake 

 of comparison, and both normal and abnormal specimens were 

 treated alike. For nearly two weeks the two fish behaved alike, 

 but after that time the cross-banded fish began to lose its quiet 

 passive behavior and to assume a decidedly overbearing attitude 

 toward its companion. Several of my fellow investigators called 

 my attention to this curious behavior, which might well be termed 

 "bossy." Accompanying this change in behavior were several 

 morphological changes. The body became slimmer, as would 

 be expected since the eggs had practically all been extruded, the 

 flesh became harder, and dark pigment was laid down all over the 

 body. The latter was most noticeable on head and cheeks which 

 had become decidedly dusky, a change very characteristic of males 

 entering upon the period of high sexual tone. The cross bands 

 become darker and more distinct and a faint wash of orange tint 

 appeared on the anal fin, a distinctly male character. 



