18 MARVELS OF FISH LIFE 



although found in every pond, stream and puddle, 

 gathers but a mere seventy or eighty eggs into the pro- 

 tection of his nest, and of the eggs with horny cases, 

 only one, or, at the most, two, are deposited at a time. 



It stands to reason that when any particular species 

 of fish deposits an enormous quantity of eggs, an enor- 

 mous number must also be destroyed, or that particular 

 species would soon swamp all other fishes. When investi- 

 gating the life history of the roach, I made the following 

 count of roach eggs, which may assist in enabling us to 

 appreciate the amount of destruction that occurs amongst 

 unprotected eggs. 



Along one side of a pond grew a row of poplar trees, 

 and on the submerged roots of these trees the roach used 

 to lay their eggs. Measuring out fifty yards along the 

 bank, with the assistance of two friends, I gathered all 

 the eggs in certain measured areas, and estimated that 

 in the fifty yards there were seven million five hundred 

 thousand eggs. During the next four days a pair of 

 ducks busily ate up all the eggs just below the surface 

 of the water, shoals of young roach cruising round and 

 round, 'picked them off during the day, and both night 

 and day big and little eels literally sucked the roots 

 clean. On the fourth day we again counted the eggs in 

 similar areas, and estimated that in the place of seven 

 millions a mere ten thousand were left. The fish did not 

 appear to trouble further about these few scattered eggs, 

 but when one considers that a similar destruction occurs 

 among young roach, from their larval stages, it will be 



