NUMBER VI 

 THE STORY OF KURTUS 



IN one of the rivers of New Guinea there lives 

 a fish called Gulliver's Kurt us, whose parental 

 care is very remarkable. In the full-grown male a 

 bony process on the back of the skull grows for- 

 wards and downwards like a bent little finger, and 

 forms a ring or " eye." In this, somehow or 

 other, a wreath of eggs is attached. Each egg has an 

 envelope made of coiled threads, which unwind 

 when the eggs are laid, and are over a hundred in 

 number. It is as if a ball of thread unravelled 

 itself into many separate pieces, all remaining fixed 

 to the core of the ball, but becoming entangled 

 by their loose ends with those of other balls. The 

 egg-threads unite into strings, and these into a 

 cylindrical band. Thus the eggs are bound together, 

 forming a twin cluster like a double bunch of onions. 

 The connecting band passes through the bony ring 

 and the father-fish goes about carrying the eggs 

 effectively fastened on the top of his head. This 

 is a very remarkable case, and one would like to 

 know more in regard to the way in which the egg- 

 bunches get fastened to the bony ring. What is 



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