410 



PAEENTAL CARE AMONG FRESH-WATER FISHES. 



Probably few naturalists or psychologists will be prepared to con- 

 cede the possession of a sentiment of nntiselfish altruism l)y any of 

 these lowly forms. The attribute of parental care must therefore be 

 regarded as an outcome of selfishness, or, if you will, self-love," a re- 

 sult of the sense of proprietorship. The eggs are the fish's own, and 

 therefore they and the resulting larvae are to be cared for as such. 

 Perhaps it may l)e urged that the attention of the parental fishes is 

 of the same nature as that of the hen to her young. We are not pre- 

 pared to deny it. It may even be conceded, and yet the claim that 

 the sentiment is the oft'spring of self-love can still be maintained. In 

 fact, there is a regular gradation of self-love into the ennobled senti- 

 ment which impels the human mother to sacrifice her life cheerfully 

 for her child and the degraded passion which emboldens the miser to 



^lale. Female. 



Figs. 4, .''>. — Ancintni.^ cIkiijicsL After Regan. 



suffer death rather than lose his gold. It is the basis of the courage 

 of the farseeing martyr for his religion, for he is willing to sacrifice 

 the present for an illimitable future. 



Wonder may be entertained that one and the same method of care 

 should have originated independently many times, but this will di- 

 minish on reflection. When the sense of proprietorship in the eggs 

 has been established protection by hiding them or clearing away of 

 foreign substances that would interfere with them would not un- 

 naturally follow. The mouth is used by man}^ fishes for carrying, 

 and the instinct to take up the eggs into the mouth for protection 

 would be a natural consequence which might be, and repeatedly has 



ffl See Whately's Morals and Christian Evidences, XVI, sec. 3 (Am. ed., 1857, 

 p. 129) ; Ward's D.vuamic Sociology, I, 079. 



