In the Little Brook 293 



It probably gives only the impression of jars or disturbances 

 in the water. 



The catfish lays her eggs on the bottom of the brook, 

 without much care as to their location. She is not, how- 

 ever, indifferent to their fate, for when the little fishes are 

 hatched she swims with them into shallow waters, brooding 

 over them and watching them much as a hen does her 

 chickens. In shallow ponds the young catfishes make a 

 black cloud along the shores, and the other fishes let them 

 alone, for their spines are sharp as needles. 



Up the brooks in the spring come the suckers, large and 

 small, coarse, harmless, stupid fishes, who have only two 

 instincts, the one to press to the head of the stream to lay 

 their eggs, the other to nose over the bottom of the stream 

 wherever they go, sucking into their puckered, toothless 

 mouths every organic thing, from water moss to carrion, 

 which they may happen to find. They have no other habits 

 to speak of, and when they have laid their eggs in a sandy 

 ripple they care no more for them, but let go of life's 

 activity and drop down the current to the river whence they 

 came. There are black suckers and white suckers, yellow 

 ones, brown ones, red ones and mottled, and there is more 

 than one kind in every little brook, but one and all are harm- 

 less dolts, the prey of all larger fishes, and so full of bones 

 that even the small boy spits them out after he has cooked 

 them. 



Then come the minnows, of all forms and sizes; the fe- 

 male dull colored and practical, laying her eggs automatic- 

 ally when she finds quiet water, and thinking no more of 

 them afterward ; the male, feeble of muscle, but resplendent 

 in color, with head and fins painted scarlet or purple, or 

 silver white, or inky black, according to the nature of his 

 kind. His mouth is small and without teeth, for he feeds 

 on creatures smaller than fishes, and his head in the spring 

 is covered with coarse warts, nuptial ornaments, which fall 

 off as soon as the eggs are properly disposed of. In the 



