PARENTAL CARE AMONG FRESH- WATER FISHES. 435 



After comjDlete dispersion and ^Yhen the young fishes have to pro- 

 vide for themselves their habits are those of the species in miniature. 

 When 3 to 5 inches long, the colors are quite striking; yellow, red, 

 and green tinting the vertical fins and blackish bordering them, red 

 dj^eing the gill membranes, and three distinct bars bordered with 

 lighter or orange running along the sides of the head, the ui^permost 

 through the eye, the lowermost along the jaws; later these fade out. 

 When a year old they are about 10 inches long and like the j^arents 

 in form and color. Most individuals probably do not reach sexual 

 maturity till the third or fourth year. 



The bowfin is not a favorite with epicures, and is, indeed, generally 

 rejected and not ranked as a food fish at all. The flesh is soft and 

 disagreeable. 



CHARACINIDS. 



The famiW of Characinids includes a very large number of species 

 ('about 300), confined to South (and middle) America and Africa; 

 species are the sole American representatives of the carp-like fishes 

 in the Southern Conti- 

 nent, but in Africa may 

 be found side by side 

 with the Cyprinids, espe- 

 cially Barbels. Nothing 

 exact is known of the 



breeding habits of any fig. 24— .S'a/-njr/oc<.s(;-/o,larvrt, just after hatching, showing 

 of thp miPfip^ but in the large adhesive cement organ (e. o.) borne on the front 

 '^ ' of the head and a pectoral fin {». /.). After Budgett. 



1901 J. S. Budgett re- 

 corded a noteworthy fact respecting a peculiar provision for the 

 protection of the eggs and young of a common African species, the 

 Sarcodaces odoe. According to him, in the flooded grass lands of 

 equatorial Africa along the Gambia River, " the eye is frequenth'^ 

 caught by masses of white foam floating on the surface of the Avater. 

 On close inspection it is seen to be filled with numerous transparent 

 ova," about 2^ millimeters in diameter. The fry hatched from the 

 eggs " make their way through the foam * * * Jown to the sur- 

 face of the water, and there the young larvse hang holding to the 

 surface of the water by a large adhesive organ situated on the front 

 of the head." The blacks were Avell acquainted with the nature of 

 the foamy nests, and told Budgett what they were, and were corrob- 

 orated by his investigations. 



The peculiar fabrication of a foamy receptacle for the eggs is 

 analogous to the provision made by some catfish-like forms — the Cal- 

 lichthyicls — as well as the celebrated fish of Paradise {Macropodus 

 viridi-auratus) , a relative of the Gourami. This fact is especially 

 noteworthy, as the three groups which make such similar nests are in 

 no wise related, and all three differ from most of their relatives in 

 their peculiar oviposition. 



