Oral Gestation in the Gaff-Topsail Catfish, Felichthys Felis. 47 



The first account to be given is the classic one of Coste, "Nidifi- 

 cation des Epinoches et des Epinochettes," published in 1848. After 

 describing the making of the nest and the laying of the eggs, Coste 

 tells how the male Gasterosteus pungitius stands watch and ward 

 over the nest until the eggs are hatched, hastening the process by 

 fanning them free of sediment and by helping in their oxygenation 

 at the same time. When hatched, ''He does not allow the young to 

 go outside the boundaries of the nest, and if any one does so, he 

 takes it in his mouth and bears it immediately back to its domicile. 

 If, however, the number of deserters increases, he seizes several at 

 one time without hurting them." With regard to the question of 

 feeding during this self-imposed guardianship, Coste adds: 



"This animal, which during all the remainder of the year is remarkable for 

 its voracity, suffers an abstinence almost complete during the time devoted 

 to the construction of its nest, the care of its eggs, and the training of its 

 young." 



An almost equally charming account is that of Albany Hancock 

 (1854) for Gasterosteus aculeatus and G. spinachia. In most interesting 

 fashion he describes how he sav/ the watchful parent with gaping 

 jaws seize the little wanderer, who disappeared therein, as he thought, 

 forever. But to his deUght the old fish returned to the nest and 

 deposited the small straggler therein. Then he saw that it was the 

 purpose of the paterfamilias to allow no rambling from the nest. 

 Sometimes the fry were held in the mouth for an appreciable length 

 of time, but they were never harmed. 



A similar state of affairs was noted for Gasterosteus leiurus by 

 Robert Warrington in 1855. After describing the building of the nest, 

 he says that as the yolk-sacs of the developing young become smaller 

 and their activity greater, "their attempts carried them to a great 

 distance from the parent fish; his vigilance, however, seemed every- 

 where, and 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 mouth, brought 

 back and gently puffed or jetted into their place again." 



Furthermore, if the fishlets are removed by artificial means the 

 father brings them back in his mouth and shoots them into the nest, 

 according to the observations of William Houghton, recorded in 1865. 

 Ransom, in the same year noted the same habit and says of G. pun- 

 gitius: "He seemed to take no food." "The Tinker was almost 

 starving in the midst of plenty." Nor are later observations of this 

 habit lacking if one may credit Becker's notes on G. aculeatus pub- 

 lished in 1907. 



Almost in the Antipodes, we find certain osphromenid fishes prac- 

 ticing similar habits. Many of these make floating nests of foam 

 and mucus in which the male guards the eggs and young. The first 



