COURTSHIP AND NURSERY DUTIES. 105 



has been graphically told by Mr Warrington, 

 who had the good fortune to watch the whole 

 sequence of events during this most critical 

 period of the fish's life. The nest he watched 

 was built in a large aquarium containing, besides 

 several others of his own species, two tench 

 and a gold-finch. " The other fish," he writes, 

 "three of them some twenty times larger than 

 himself, as soon as they perceived that the 

 young fry were in motion, used their utmost 

 endeavours, continuously, to pounce upon the 

 nest and snap them up. The courage of this 

 little creature was certainly now put to its 

 severest test, but nothing daunted he drove 

 them all off, seizing their fins, and striking with 

 all his strength at their heads and at their eyes 

 most furiously. . . . Another circumstance which 

 appeared to add greatly to the excitement that 

 he was constantly subjected to arose from the 

 second female fish . . . endeavouring most 

 pertinaciously to deposit her ova in the same 

 locality, and hence rushing frequently down 

 towards the spot ; but the male fish was ever 

 on the alert, and although he did not strike at 

 her in the furious way he attacked the larger 

 ones, yet he kept continually under her, with the 

 formidable back spines all raised erect, so that 

 it was impossible for her to effect her apparent 

 object. 



" The care of the young brood was very extra- 

 ordinary ... if they rose by the action of their 

 fins above a certain height from the shingle 

 bottom, or flitted beyond a certain distance from 

 the nest, they were immediately seized in his 



