50i RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1886. 



The Scottish species of Lepadofjaster spawn in June and July. The 

 eggs of all are large compared with the fish, and this, Mr. W. A. Smith 

 adds, " may be said as a rule of shore fishes whose ova are compara- 

 tively few in number and more carefully watched over and tended by 

 the jiarents. The eggs indeed of Lepadogaster may be readily counted, 

 and average about one hundred and fifty." They are generally depos- 

 ited in regular layers within the empty shells of scallops, and are usually 

 " accompanied by the parent, curled up inside the shell, watching over 

 the progress of their progeny; and if the dredge should bring up a shell 

 thus supplied with ova from eight to twelve fathoms off scallop ground, 

 if the fish is not in the shell, it is almost sure to be in the other contents 

 of the dredge, showing it had either come out in the capture, or been 

 watching close by.'^ 



It is nearly a month before the eggs of the Lepadogaster Decandolii 

 are hatched, and the young then has " no sign of a sucker or the con- 

 comitant habits;" they are indeed " extremely active." The " develop- 

 ment of the muscles that act upon the pectoral region are merely em- 

 bryonic at forty-six days old," and it is not until some time afterwards 

 that the suctorial apparatus is completely developed. (Proc. R. Physi- 

 cal Soc. Edinburgh, ISSS-'SG, pp. 143-150.) 



Variations in oviposition of CalUchthyoid fishes. — It had long been 

 known that the Hoplosternum (or Callichthys) littoralis makes a nest and 

 takes assiduous care of its young. Additional information has been 

 recently given by Capt. J. A. M. Vipan, in observations made on 

 fishes from Trinidad and preserved in the aquarium at his house in 

 England. Two individuals " commenced making a nest on June 6 but 

 that " and another tbey made three days later they soon pulled to 

 pieces. " On the night of the 11th they began a new one ; it consisted 

 of pieces of Vallisneria, of the leaves of Nymplum that were growing 

 in the tank, which they bit off close to the roots of the plants, and a 

 great quantity of river-moss {Fontinalis antipyretica), each piece being 

 two or three times the size of the fish, so that it must have had hard 

 work to bring them to the surface. They worked these materials 

 together by some mucous substance until the outside was hard, the 

 whole being under a quarter of an inch thick ; they next buoyed up the 

 structure with a quantity of mucous foam until it was raised 3J inches 

 above the water. The whole nest was 9 inches long and 7 inches wide, 

 and somewhat resembled a finger-glass turned upside down on the top 

 of the water, with the interior filled with froth. The fish kept swim- 

 ming close under it all the time on their backs, and filling it with foam 

 when finished. On the 12th the female shed her spawn between her 

 ventral fins, which were clasped right together, and, when full, swam 

 to the nest, and, turning on her back, deposited the spawn in it; this 

 occurred several times, the male each time putting the spawn in its 

 proper place and covering it with froth. As soon as the female had 



