356 Mr. R. Hill's Contributions to the 



male shortly afterwards, she finally left him fructifying the eggs, 

 and adhering to the masses of roe till the eggs were hatched, 

 and that he fought other fishes while watching and guarding the 

 important deposit ; — he was doubted by the cautious Lacepede : 

 but his statement has not only been confirmed, but the traits of 

 parental care first made known by him have been considerably 

 extended by the testimony of the fishermen of Berwickshire, in 

 Dr. George Johnston's History of the Fishes of that coast. It 

 appears from their observation, that the male fish not alone 

 covers the spawn and remains covering it until the ova are 

 hatched ; but that he receives the young on his back, to which 

 they attach themselves, and that he then sails away loaded with 

 them to deeper and more safe retreats. 



I would here mention, as a still more remarkable illustration 

 of the ofiices performed by male fishes independently, that in the 

 SyngnathidcB or Pipe-fish tribe there is a strange and very pecu- 

 liar organization. The male has a subcaudal pouch closed by 

 two elongated lateral flaps. On separating these flaps in the 

 spawning season, a sac is seen lined with ova, or marked with 

 hemispherical depressions, from which the ova had been removed. 

 This marsupial structure in a fish, though curious, is very intelli- 

 gible as a peculiarity of the male sex only. Fishes of the Osseous 

 division, we have seen already, are not impregnated by intro- 

 raittent contact. The female spawns the roe, and the male ejects 

 the milt into the common element, and impregnation results 

 from the efi'usion of sperm upon the waters. Another ceconomy 

 prevails in the Pipe-fish : the female discharges the ova into the 

 caudal pouch of the male, and the eggs there receive impregna- 

 tion from the proximative sexual organs, where they are retained 

 until the young escape from the capsules in a state of perfect 

 development. 



1 have exhibited the instinctive actions of oviparous fishes for 

 the purpose of showing the extent to which a provident arrange- 

 ment of habits necessary for the continuance of the species in- 

 fluences the two sexes under their remarkable ceconomy. We 

 shall find the phsenomena of viviparous fishes replete with ten- 

 dencies not less remarkable, though altogether working in an- 

 other direction. What is wonderful in all these impressions, is 

 the consciousness, which, in our distinction between the rational 

 and the instinctive mind, we should say manifests itself in a be- 

 lief as to a future, which, not existing as knowledge, or as a fact 

 the result of experience, cannot be an anticipation of conse- 

 quences. " When we consider, however," as Professor Brown 

 beautifully observes, "who it is that formed us, it would have 

 been wonderful if the belief had not arisen ; because in that 

 case, the phfenomcna of nature, however regularly arranged, 



