ZOOLOGY. 505 



dropped all her spawn the male took entire possession of the nest and 

 would not let his mate go anywhere near it, and treated her so badly " 

 that Captain Vipan had to '' place her in another tank to save her life. 

 Unfortunately the spawn was not good, only a few eggs hatching, 

 and the young fishes dying soon afterwards." 



Captain Vipan adds some interesting information relative to a small 

 species of a genus allied to the Eoplosternum, the Gorydoras (or Callich- 

 tliys) punctatus. He bred large numbers of that little fish obtained from 

 the Amazon, but "they never made the slightest attempt at making a 

 nest, always depositing their spawn all over the tank, and even on the 

 floating thermometer kept in it." He does not mention whether the 

 male guarded the eggs, and it might be inferred indeed that such was 

 not the case. Such neglect, however, would be excei)tional among the 

 Nematognathous fishes, inasmuch as the male almost always takes care 

 of the eggs during maturation. (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1886, i)p. 330, 

 331.) 



The constituents of white hait. — The nature of the famous English lux- 

 ury known as " white-bait" was for a long time doubtful. In the earlier 

 part of the century it was generally referred to a i^eculiar species of the 

 family of Clupeids, and the English naturalist Tarrell described it as a 

 new species under the name Clupea alba, Sbud hyeven such a distinguished 

 ichthyologist as Valenciennes this view was not only accepted but the 

 supposititious species was regarded as being a representative of a dis- 

 tinct genus, Bogenia, and consequently the Rogenia alba was inscribed 

 for some time in the books as a specific name of the white-bait. Later 

 the white-bait was very generally considered to be simply the young of 

 the common herring. Still later observations, however, indicated that 

 the problem was not to be so easily solved, and that the name white- 

 bait, instead of indicating any specific fish, was rather a generic term 

 under which various small fishes were combined, and recent investi- 

 gation has been made by Prof. J. C. Ewart, who examined specimens 

 obtained in the London markets for several mouths, from the middle 

 of February to the middle of August, 1885. The results of this inves- 

 tigation are interesting and noteworthy. During February, out of 

 fourteen hundred specimens examined, 93 per cent, were sprats and 

 only 7 per cent herring; during March, of twelve hundred specimens 

 examined, 95 per cent, were sprats and 5 per cent, herring; in April^ 

 of eight hundred specimens 86 per cent, were sprats and 14 per cent, 

 herring ; in May, of six hundred specimens 70 i^er cent, were sprats and 

 30 per cent, herring; in June, of eight hundred specimens 87 per cent, 

 were herring and 13 per cent, sprats ; in July, of six hundred specimens 

 75 per cent, were herring and 25 per cent, sprats ; and in August, of 

 five hundred specimens 52 per cent, were herring and 48 per cent, sprats. 

 The specimens varied in length from about 1 inch to 3, but averaged ia 

 the neighborhood of 2. 



