THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF AMIA. 419 
head and pectorals projecting over the nest. It is evident 
that his constant breathing is an important source of the eggs’ 
aération: his movements, moreover, aid, no doubt, in sweeping 
the nest free of sediment, from which, on account of their 
position, the eggs might otherwise suffer.! 
Shortly after the eggs are hatched the entire swarm of larvze 
/ 
hs \y Ni 
: fay aed lely 
Oconomowoc, Dis 
Fic. 2.—Nest of Amia. 
leaves the nest. A fine nest of eggs, from which the writer had 
expected to get the young just before the time of their hatch- 
ing, was found to be entirely deserted at a time when the 
young could not have been older than twenty-four hours. The 
closest search in and about the nest revealed no trace of their 
whereabouts, although from their larval habits it was thought 
that they should surely be found attached to the neighbouring 
weeds or deep in the mass of root-fibres and detritus of the nest 
bottom. They had evidently left the nest in a body, and were 
1 The few remaining eggs of nests which had been “ robbed,” and to which 
the male did not return, were found to become destroyed by fungus. 
