158 Thirty-Second Annual Meeting 



this second female out of the nest, but she persisted in her efforts 

 to stay there; she overcame his efforts to drive her out, and 

 finally he turned on the little one which had been spawning and 

 drove her out, and immediately began to give his attention to 

 the second female. This continued on for a time and to my sur- 

 prise a third female larger than either of the other two came 

 into the nest. After the male had gone through the same tactics 

 as before, that is, attempting to drive this intruder out, the fe- 

 male that was at that time spawning with liim was driven out, 

 and the third female began to spawn in that nest. After a time 

 the little female ISTo. 1 roach came back again, and the larger one 

 left and the small one began again to deposit her eggs. After i 

 time No. 2 came back, driving out No. 1, and No. 3 female came 

 back in turn. As my time could not be devoted entirely to ob- 

 serving the whole rigmarole, and I had seen enough to satisfy me 

 that there were some things in nature that we do not quite un- 

 derstand, I left and went about my work; but of course I was 

 passing back and forth often and every time I passed I' observed 

 the operation which was continued for about four hours, that is, 

 spawning with one another of the females. During the spawn- 

 ing time I was so close to the nest that I could see the eggs when 

 they were discharged from the female; they were discharged 

 right against and directly underneath the vent of the male, the 

 male remaining perfectly upright and the female turned at right 

 angles to the male. They were driven out with force enough 

 to impel them four or five inches into the water beyond, and 

 then they settled on the gravel. I could not tell how many eggs 

 were deposited. Each time the female turned on her side there 

 appeared to be a muscular contraction of the abdomen which 

 drove the eggs out with quite a little force; but as near as T 

 could judge there were about fifty discharged each time when she 

 turned on her side. 



Mr. Titcomb : What was the effect on the male ? 



Mr. Beeman : At noon the male was pretty well exhausted — 

 he was trying to fan the eggs. (Great laughter). 



The eggs hatched on the fourth day. At this time the male 

 began to take in its mouth sand from just outside of the nest, 

 dropping it right on the fry. This he confined to do until the 

 newly hatched fry were completely covered. Then he immedi- 



