THE GOBIES, SUCKERS, AND BLENNIES 165 



foreshore in situations so exposed that not alone the eggs, but 

 also their untiring guardians, are devoured by birds or rats. 

 Many anecdotes have been related of the courage with which 

 the male mounts guard over the eggs. It is related that one 

 was once found lying on its side in a hot June sun in water so 

 shallow that one side of the body and gill-covers was exposed 

 to the air. It has also been observed that when a storm has 

 scattered masses of these eggs, and driven the sentinels from 

 their post, numbers of distracted males are to be seen hunting 

 everywhere, in the succeeding calm, for their lost treasures. 



Day quotes someone who observed the young adhering 

 to the male immediately after leaving the egg, and being 

 carried off by him to the greater security of the deeper water, 

 but later authorities have doubted this story. It is now, in- 

 deed, generally recognised that the larval lumpsucker keeps 

 close to the shore for some time, seeking safety among the 

 stones and weed-roots. The imperfect little lumpsuckers are 

 far more rapid and active than the adult, their tail-fin pro- 

 pelling them effectually, and even their heavy hindquarters, 

 a hindrance to progress in later life, lending at that stage an 

 impetus to their movements. Their colouring in these early 

 days is somewhat remarkable, the head being light brown, 

 with a pale blue band, the body yellow, and the base of the 

 dorsal fins being marked by blue spots. The rough tubercles, 

 so conspicuous in the adult, do not develop until the young 

 measure about y in., or three times the length at which 

 they emerge from the egg. At that stage, too, the eye is 

 proportionately much larger than in the full-grown fish. 



Mcintosh found the skin of the larvse to be covered with 

 minute leeches, while at a somewhat later stage young lump- 

 suckers are infested with threadworms. This identification of 

 both internal and external parasites in fishes themselves less 

 than an inch in length gives some idea of the extent to which, 

 of late years, microscopic work has been summoned to the 

 aid of marine biology. 



