BRIEF NOTES ON FISHES. 389 



like the cuckoo, that is either incapable or too lazy to 

 build a nest of its own, often deposits its eggs in that of 

 its neighbor. 



" The perches wait until the suniish complete their 

 homes, when they evict them by force of blows, often 

 only after a sanguinary struggle. This accomplished, the 

 victors, male and female, install themselves, and the eggs 

 are deposited frequently among those of the former occu- 

 pants, who perhaps are avenged, as their captors guard 

 their nest jealously, protecting the young sunfish as they 

 come out, and staying by them until they are about half 

 an inch in length, when they are left to look out for 

 themselves." 



Unfortunately, this statement is based upon my own 

 perhaps too hasty conclusions, and may not be wholly 

 correct. 



Whenever I chance to walk along the tide-water 

 ditches of the lower meadows, my attention is sure to 

 be called to the greenish-gray minnows that dart by in 

 scores, and in fact are only noticeable from above when 

 seen in considerable numbers closely associated. They 

 are of no particular tint as seen in the water, agreeing in 

 this respect with the sandy, muddy bottom of the ditch, 

 they are in. To test this, I have often scattered a little 

 school of them, and while none were concealed it was 

 only with great difficulty that I could detect individuals ; 

 yet probably there were three or four on every square 

 foot of ground examined. This indefinite coloring proves 

 an excellent protection, or else the herons must have 

 sharp eyes, for these birds catch as many fish as frogs, I 

 think. These minnows are not the little shiners that are 

 also called by this comprehensive term, but are the blunt- 

 headed, square-jawed, barred little fish that are more com- 

 mon in the river than anywhere else, but are by no means 



