716 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



MOVEMENTS. 



In its movements the gourami is slow, and is said to swim along with 

 a certain "majestyofdemeanor," (majesty probably being associated with 

 slowness) ; it rarely hastens toward a meal, but proceeds slowly and 

 leisurely onward. If, however, aught frightens the fishes, or they are 

 disturbed, they at once show that swiftness is not incompatible with 

 their organization, and they dart away with great velocity. They are 

 also possessed of great saltatorial agility, and if confined in narrow quar- 

 ters are prone to leap out, and when pursued they will also attempt to 

 escape by leaping out of the water. This is manifested when they are 

 fished for with nets, and, according to Colonel Pike, unless the net is 

 held a foot or two above the water, they will leap over it to a distance 

 of several feet outside, and even when caught and laid on* the ground, 

 unless attended to, they will repeatedly leap upward and " batter them- 

 selves to i^ieces," for they are very tenacious of life. 



SPAWNING AND NESTING. 



In the sexual relations, and the care which it takes of its eggs, the 

 gourami resembles the sunfishes of temperate North America and the 

 cichlids of tropical America and Africa. The spawning-season falls in 

 the autumn (March and April) and spring (September and October) of 

 the transequatorial islands of Mauritius and Bourbon. When that time 

 has come, the males and females pair off, and each pair select a suitable 

 place wherein they construct a rude nest. " Like all intelligent animals, 

 they will only propagate when insured a suitable temperature for the 

 eggs and young, a fit retreat for the building of the nest, with plants 

 and mud for its construction, and aquatic plants suitable for the food 

 of the young." The bottom selected is muddy, the depth variable within 

 a narrow area ; that is, in one place about a yard, and near by several 

 yards deep. They prefer to use for the nest tufts of a peculiar grass, 

 {Panieum jumentorum,) which grows on the surface of the water, and 

 whose floating roots, which rise and fall with the movements of the wa- 

 ters, form natural galleries, under which the fish can conceal themselves. 

 In one of the corners of the pond, among the plants which grow there, 

 the gouramis attach their nest, which is of a nearly spherical form, and 

 composed of plants and mud, and considerably resembles in form those 

 of some birds. 



The nests, of course, vary in size in proportion to the fishes, but the 

 usual size is somewhat less than a man's hand in length, (about 5 or 6 

 inches). The fishes are employed some five or six days or a week in 

 building, and their task is rendered easier, when the pairing-season has 

 arrived, by placing in the water, almost at the surface, branches of bam- 

 boo, {Bamhiisa arundmacea,) to which are attached bundles of fine dog's- 

 tooth grass. The gouramis take this grass, and with it form their nests 

 in the branches of the submerged bamboo, in a manner analogous to 



