PARENTAL CARE AMONG FRESH-WATER FISHES. 469 



l»y the bony spines with which the pectorals are armed. Then he 

 hugs her vigorously, and without letting go slides around to the lower 

 surface of her head. In this position he forcibly emits his milt along 

 the abdomen of the female. The female is ready. As soon as she 

 had been seized by the male she had broiiglit togetlier her two ventral 

 fins and by their expansion formed behind the ovarian outlet a cavity 

 or sort of bag in which the eggs and sperm are to be received. Very 

 soon afterwards a few eggs are expelled and held in the extem- 

 porized receptacle and then fructified by the spermatozoa already 

 lodged there. The set of eggs has about five or six, and these the 

 female holds for some minutes in the pouch just noticed. Then, she 

 goes in search of a place to deposit her eggs. Her choice genera^ is 

 a well cleared area, perhaps a stone projecting out of the water. She 

 clears with her mouth a spot at least four or six inches (ten or fifteen 

 centimeters) below the level of the water; then applying her abdomen 

 to the spot she opens her pouch, parting the ventrals, and fixes her 

 eggs, which become attached by the viscosity which envelops them. 

 All the eggs being thus disposed of, she again approaches the males, 

 and the same procedure is gone through with forty or fifty times in the 

 course of a day. The number of eggs thus provided for is about 

 •250. As iDolyandry is indulged in by the female, it is not likely that 

 iuiy provision except that just noticed is made for the later care 

 (;f the eggs by either male or female. 



The absence of a special nest is also vouched for by Captain Vipan, 

 who, in 1886, wrote that he had " bred great quantities " of the 

 Gorydoras punctatus '' from the Amazons, but they never made the 

 slightest attempt at making a nest, always depositing their spawn 

 all over the tank and even on the floating thermometer kept in it." 



In the island of Trinidad, where species of three genera live, the 

 largest of the Callichthyids, called cascadura (Hoplosterimm litto- 

 rale), is so highly esteemed that a proverbial expression has arisen — 

 "He who eats a cascadura will die in the island."" The ambiguous 

 phrase is interpreted to mean that if one goes away he will return to 

 satisfy his appetite for the fish. The present writer has not been 

 affected in that manner. He could not appreciate much, if any, 

 superiority over the best of the common American catfishes. In other 

 jilaces than Trinidad, too, the fish appears to be highly regarded. 

 Hancock wrote of the Demerara fish that " the flesh of this hassar is 

 yellow, firm, and very savory, especially esteemed by the Creoles in 

 their soups," whose comi^osition is described by him at length. 



o An analogous proverb is prevalent in Guiana in connection with a catfish 

 ctilled Paraiba. (See p. 455.) 



