518 



PARENTAL CARE AMONG FRESH-WATER FISHES. 



of the fisher disciples of Jesus Christ, but they are not specifically 

 mentioned in the Bible. 



Abundant as these fishes are in the lake so celebrated in biblical 

 story, no specific mention of any of them, or of any other fishes, oc- 

 curs in the Bible. All that came into the nets of the old fishermen 

 of biblical times were simply " fish." But even in that prescientific 

 age, it was recognized that one of the same kind that abounded in the 

 lake was also found in the Nile. Josephus, in his eulogy of the 

 beauties of the Plain of Gennesareth, tells that it is " watered from a 

 most fertile fountain. * * * gome have thought it a vein of the 

 Nile, because it produces the coracin fish as well as that lake which 

 is near Alexandria." The coracin or crowlike fish, so called on ac- 



FiG. 93. — The Bolti (TUai)ia nUotiva ). After Lortet. 



count of the dark or "' crowlike " color of the fish, was undoubtedly 

 a Cichlid of the genus I'ilctpia, closely related, at least, to the bolti of 

 Egypt." 



What is knoAvn of the preliminary advances of the male to the 

 female or courtship has been derived from observations of the Tilapla 

 simonis of the " Sea of Galilee " or Lake Tiberias made by L. Lortet. '^ 



The eggs, which are about as large as shot No. 4 (French measure), 



a Lortet identified the Coracinus with the Clarioid catfish Clarias, but without 

 sufl3cient reason. 



'> The translation or paraphrase of Lortet's notice is left as written and with- 

 out comment save that it appears to have been proved that the egg carrier is 

 always the female. It may be added, however, that Lortet was. doubt- 

 less, perfectly convinced that he had really observed the transfer of duties 

 from the female to the male. Anyone who has attempted to follow a pair of 

 active fishes and to discriminate between them will appreciate how confused he 

 may become. Placing too implicit faith in the universality of the rule that the 

 male fish takes care of eggs and young, the fish which Lortet found with eggs in 



