NONSUCH 



fully developed in adult f rogfish show no trace of 

 silken strands. 



It is rather a pleasing thought that the fish which 

 in method of progression most resemble birds 

 should also build nests. The eggs in their earliest 

 development were in the gastrula stage, which 

 means that they somewhat resembled the adult con- 

 dition of jellyfish, a stage through which fish and 

 birds and ourselves have to pass. The easiest way to 

 visualize it is to press in one side of a rubber ball 

 until the two layers are close together in the shape 

 of a hollow, two-layered cup. 



I placed the eggs in an aquarium, gave them an 

 abundance of oxygen, and they developed rapidly. 

 In an astonishingly short time the little fish could 

 be seen lying on top of an enormous mass of yolk, 

 and day by day he grew larger until he was wrapped 

 around half the circumference of the rest of the 

 egg. This hollow world of his was less than a six- 

 teenth of an inch in diameter, and yet within it he 

 began to exercise many of the activities of his adult 

 life. 



First his eyes are dominant over all his being, 

 then the brain case begins to pile up, something like 

 a mouth appears, and large, branched bits of black 

 and yellow pigment preface all the blazing colors of 

 the adult. The heart is an open saclike affair through 

 which we can see the colorless corpuscles being 

 pumped rather slowly over the yolk and back. 

 A day or two more and the heart has settled 

 down to its life work, beating two and a half times 



70 



