SLICKING FOR FLYINGFISHES 



compilers have failed to include the fact in text- 

 book or fish volume. As long as I can remember I 

 have been on the lookout for a nest of this kind and 

 I can never resist picking up any rounded mass of 

 gulf weed, whether on sea or shore. 



Five times I have found these nests of eggs in 

 compact balls of weed. The first three I accepted 

 with no more misgiving than a medieval monk would 

 doubt the dictum of Aristotle. In the fourth all the 

 eggs were dead, but an advanced embryo showed 

 no hint of resemblance to a frogfish or any of its 

 relations. The fifth was taken as we returned from 

 a long day in the slicks of mid-ocean off Nonsuch, 

 and all the eggs were alive and vigorous. 



The weed was tightly packed into a ball about 

 four by five inches in diameter, and was held to- 

 gether by many very strong turns of white string. 

 When cut, these contracted at once into a tangle 

 of numerous fine, silken threads. The eggs were in 

 three general stages of development, and when I 

 unwound several feet I found that there were three 

 separate masses of these stages, hinting strongly 

 that three female fish had taken part in the laying. 

 The most important thing was that each egg had 

 a number of long, very thin hairs attached to it, a 

 character peculiar to a family of fish which includes 

 flyingfish. And in fact I was able to rear a number 

 of the young fish to a stage where they were recog- 

 nizable as flyingfish, and from a count of the rays of 

 their fins we could even be sure that they were of the 

 genus Eoconautes, The eggs which I have found 



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