Oral Gestation in the Gaff-Topsail Catfish, Felichthys Felis. 49 



declared it to have been Umbra pygmcea {Science, Dec. 21, 1906). 

 Carbonnier notes that after the extrusion and fertiUzation of the 

 eggs "the female sucked them into her mouth and appeared to take 

 great pleasure in rolling them around therein, nevertheless she replaced 

 them" whence she had taken them. ''When the eggs are found to 

 to be a Uttle scattered, it is clear that the female is no longer their 

 only shield and protector, for the males also suck them into their 

 mouths and pass them from one to another. At this time, the move- 

 ments which they execute with their fins denote great satisfaction. 

 As they replace the eggs without alteration and without damage, 

 the female shows no air of inquietude; nevertheless at times she 

 turns her head and makes pretense of driving them away." During 

 hatching the female sohcitously guards the eggs and carefully removes 

 with her mouth all bad eggs. 



One other instance, and we are ready to come to the catfishes. The 

 miller's thumb, Coitus gobio, lays adhesive eggs which are guarded 

 by the male. Of it Thomas Peek says (1869): ''On the occasion of 

 one of the small fish emerging from its egg, the parent chased it to 

 the bottom of the tank, and, taking it gently in his mouth, replaced 

 it in the cluster." 



Further search through the literature would probably reveal other 

 instances of this habit, but incidents enough have been given to make 

 it clear that mouth transportation, as well as gestation, is not alto- 

 gether unusual. However, similar habits are now to be described 

 in members of the very family of catfishes themselves. 



At the 1902 meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, Dr. H. M. Smith, the present United States 

 Commissioner of Fisheries, presented an interesting paper upon the 

 breeding habits of the common yellow catfish, Amieurus nehulosus. 

 The particular point in this paper which is of interest just here may 

 be quoted as follows: 



"The most striking act in the care of the eggs was the sucking of the egg 

 masses into the mouth and the blowing of them out with some force. The 

 .... mouthing operations were continued with the fry until they swam 



freely, when the care of the young may be said to have ceased The 



predaceous feeding habits of the old fish gradually overcame the parental 

 instinct; the tendency to suck the fry into their mouths continued, and the 

 inclination to spit them out diminished, so that the number of young dwindled 

 daily." 



The above is from the abstract of Smith's paper pubHshed in Sci- 

 ence (Feb. 13, 1903). The complete account is to be found in a 

 paper by Smith and Harron (1903), pubHshed in the Bulletin of the 

 United States Fish Conomission for 1902. In this they say: 



' 'The most striking act in the care of the eggs was the sucking of the egg 

 masses into the mouth and the blowing of them out, this being repeated sev- 

 eral times with each cluster before another lot was treated .... 



