S( 



A' 



V ^ 



V. SI 



plants, but until the present summer there 

 has been no certainty of this. 



Mr. George W. Price, of the Philadelphia 

 Aquarium Society, has been fortunate enough 

 to have had several nests made in his aqua- 

 rium by Chaetodons, which, while in part 

 seeming to confirm the observations of Mr. 

 Schubert, have been found in the main to 

 e found to spawn on plants, thus again em- 

 phasizing Dr. Gill's caution against "Undue 

 Generalization." Mr. Price had one pair of 

 fish to spawn five times, June 5th, 16th and 

 support my expressed belief that they would 

 19th, and July 11th and 15th. The usual 

 spawning season is the latter part of May 

 and early part of June, but in this case it 

 was retarded by the changed conditions. No 

 fish resulted from the first, second and fourth 

 spawnings. Of the third lot, some of the eggs 

 were removed and placed in a jar, where they 

 hatched on June 21st. Of the fifth spawning, 

 July 15th, about half of the eggs were trans- 

 ferred to a jar, where they hatched on the 

 17th. 



The nest is usually made in the denser part 

 of a mass of plants, and is simply a hollow 

 fashioned out by the male forcing itself around 

 and around until a place large enough to hold 

 the two fish is formed. On the plant on the 

 lower part and sides of this hollow the eggs 

 are deposited. 



The act of spawning, Mr. Price describes 

 as follows: After several attempts the male 

 succeeded in inducing the female to follow 

 to the nest. Following the usual sidewise 

 undulatory movements comm.on to the other 

 sunfishes, the fish came together somewhat 

 in the shape of a butterfly when resting on a 

 leaf with wings moving back and forth, thus 

 forming an acute arj,a:le. vs^^^'i-'p- -^rai-'^Mv 

 from five to forty degrees. With this there 

 was also the characteristic quivering motions 

 common to fi^'hes that a^^e i^ot m noti^-^ ----.o^ 

 spawning. When the spawning was completed 

 the female was driven out, and thereafter kept 

 away from the nest. The fish were hatched 

 in two days, on June 21st, upon which they 

 6o 



