520 AUDUBON 



is still more apparent. The little creature is then seen 

 swimming rapidly over shallows, the bed of which is 

 mostly formed of fine gravel, when after a time it is ob- 

 served to poise itself and gradually sink to the bottom, 

 where with its fin it pushes aside the sand to the extent 

 of eight or ten inches, thus forming a circular cavity. In 

 a few days a little ridge is thus raised around, and in the 

 cleared area the roe is deposited. By wading carefully 

 over the extent of the place, a person may count forty, 

 fifty, or more of these beds, some within a few feet of 

 each other, and some several yards apart. Instead of 

 abandoning its spawn, as others of the family are wont 

 to do, this little fish keeps guard over it with all the care 

 of a sitting bird. You observe it poised over the bed, 

 watching the objects around. Should the rotten leaf of 

 a tree, a piece of wood, or any other substance, happen to 

 be rolled over the border of the bed, the Sunfish carefully 

 removes it, holding the obnoxious matter in its mouth, 

 and dropping it over the margin. Having many times 

 witnessed this act of prudence and cleanliness in the 

 little sunny, and observed that at this period it will not 

 seize on any kind of bait, I took it into my head one fair 

 afternoon to make a few experiments for the purpose of 

 judging how far its instinct or reason might induce it to 

 act when disturbed or harassed. 



Provided with a fine fishing-line, and such insects as I 

 knew were relished by this fish, I reached a sand-bar 

 covered by about one foot of water, where I had previously 

 seen many deposits. Approaching the nearest to the 

 shore with great care, I baited my hook with a living 

 ground-worm, the greater part of which was left at liberty 

 to writhe as it pleased, and, throwing the line up the 

 stream, managed it so that at last it passed over the 

 border of the nest, when I allowed it to remain on the 

 bottom. The fish, I perceived, had marked me, and as 

 the worm intruded on its premises, it swam to the farther 



