no 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 52 



VI 



Distinctive sexual characters become manifest during winter or 

 spring, varying in time of development with temperature. The color 

 of the males becomes more intense. "The female, the belly of which 

 is almost monstrously distended during pregnancy, lays its eggs in 

 Alarch" in Sweden — both then as well as earlier or later, according to 

 temperature, in other countries.^ But first preparation is made for 

 the deposit, and a hiding place is prepared by the male or female (it 



^i%;fe; 



Fig. 34. — C. gobio male. 

 After Prevost. 



Fig. 35. — C. gobio female. 

 After Prevost. 



is uncertain which) scraping a hole with its tail under a stone, or it 

 fastens the deposit of eggs (which is in a mass about the size of a 

 "sparrow's egg'') to "stones or bridge-piles driven into the bottom." 



'According to Baird (1851), the eggs of Cotttis gracilis (viscosus) "are laid 

 from the middle of April to the end of May, and are deposited in round 

 packets about the size of an ounce bullet, under boards, stones, and in shallow, 

 springy water. It is possible that they are watched by the parent, as we have 

 frequently found individuals under the same cover as the eggs. The ova are 

 of a rose color, and about the size of No. 3 shot, conveying the impression of 

 disproportionate size." 



