592 TELEOSTEI CHAP. 
In this family the eggs and young are usually looked after by 
the parents. Aristotle observed that the male of the European 
Silurus glanis watches over and defends the eggs. In one of 
the commonest North American Cat-Fishes, Amiwrus nebulosus, 
a species which has been largely introduced into some parts of 
Europe of late, now thriving in many ponds and more or less 
polluted streams of the Continent, the eggs are deposited near 
the banks of weedy ponds and rivers without currents, in con- 
cealed places beneath logs, stumps, or even in pails or other 
receptacles, failing which both parents join in excavating a sort 
of nest in the mud, a work often requiring two or three days of 
incessant labour. The male watches over the eggs, and later 
leads the young in great schools near the shore, seemingly caring 
for them as the hen for her chickens The Doras and the 
Callichthys of South America, according to Hancock” and Vipan,? 
Fic. 858.—Callichthys littoralis, from South America. 2 nat. size. 
build regular nests of grass or leaves, sometimes placed in a hole 
scooped out in the bank, in which they cover their eggs and 
defend them, male and female sharing in this parental duty. In 
the likewise South American Corydoras (Callichthys paleatus), as 
observed by Carbonnier,* a lengthy courtship takes place, followed 
by an embrace, during which the female receives the seminal 
fluid in a sort of pouch formed by the folded membranes of her 
ventral fins; immediately after, five or six eggs are produced and 
received in the pouch, to be afterwards carefully placed in a 
secluded spot. This operation is repeated many times, until the 
total number of eggs, about 250, have been deposited. In 
’ Cf. Eycleshymer, Amer. Nat. 1901, p. 911. 
2 Zool. Journ. iv. 1829, p. 245. 3 P.Z.S. 1836, p. 330. 
4 Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1880, p. 288. 
