iS6 SALT-WATER FISHES 



for the most part in very shallow water, and in some cases 

 the eggs are even deposited and hatched above low water- 

 mark. In most species the male parent shows the anxiety to 

 protect the eggs, discovering parental instincts that we seek in 

 vain among the larger and in some respects more highly 

 developed food-fishes described in earlier chapters. Yet it is 

 hardly commendable to take the view adopted by one writer, 

 who cynically regrets that Nature should have implanted the 

 most cautious habits in the least valuable fishes. In the first 

 place. Nature does not take the fishmonger's view of what are 

 the most and least valuable fishes, for she has uses for all quite 

 distinct from those- of the kitchen. In the second place, this 

 strong affection for the eggs and young is in many cases 

 counteracted by a compensating lack of judgment, as these 

 fishes often deposit their eggs in situations on the foreshore, 

 where they must inevitably be exposed at high tide to the 

 violence of the surf and at low to the raids of crows and gulls. 

 Scales, so characteristic a covering in the majority of fishes, 

 are not strongly developed among these small shore-dwellers, 

 though present in some of them. In many cases the scales 

 are replaced by either tubercles or bony plates ; in others they 

 are absent, and there is no such substitute. 



Gobiidae 



The Gobies 



Interesting in their breeding habits, the Gobies are in 

 themselves insignificant-looking, little, spotted fishes with large 

 fins in proportion to the size of their bodies. Their eggs are 

 deposited at the bottom of the sea in shallow water, and in all 

 manner of strange receptacles that recall the curious nesting- 

 sites chosen by some birds. These eggs are attached to their 

 supports by a network of hairlike anchor ropes, and these are 

 admirably figured by Professor Mcintosh and iVIr. iVIasterman 

 in their work on our Marine Food-fishes. These eggs, as 



