82 ACANTHOPTERYGII. — TRIGLAD^. 



Sea-adder, is endowed with a similar instinct. 

 The author of a communication to the Royal 

 Institution of Cornwall, republished in the 

 ** Zoologist," thus records his observations :— 

 "During the summers of 1842, and 1843, while 

 searching for the naked mollusks of the county, 

 I occasionally discovered portions of sea-weed 

 and the common coralline hanging from the rocks 

 in pear-shaped masses, variously intermingled 

 with each other. On one occasion, having ob- 

 served that the mass was very curiously bound 

 together by a slender silken-looking thread, it 

 was torn open, and the centre was found to be 

 occupied by a mass of transparent amber-coloured 

 ova, each being about the tenth of an inch in 

 diameter. Though examined on the spot with a 

 lens, nothing could be discovered to indicate 

 their character. They were, however, kept in a 

 basin, and daily supplied with sea-water, and 

 eventually proved to be the young of some fish. 

 The nest varies a great deal in size, but rarely 

 exceeds six inches in length, or four inches in 

 breadth. It is pear-shaped, and composed of sea- 

 weed or the common coralline, as they hang 

 suspended from the rock. They are brought 

 together, without being detached from their 

 places of growth, by a delicate, opaque, white 

 thread. This thread is highly elastic, and very 

 much resembles silk, both in appearance and 

 texture ; this is brought round the plants, and 

 tightly binds them together, plant after plant, till 

 the ova, which are deposited early, are complete- 

 ly hidden from view. This silk-like thread is 

 passed in all directions through and around the 

 mass, in a very complicated manner. At first, 



