394: RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



I have not in subsequent observations seen anything to 

 contradict it. Certainly the females precede the male 

 fish to the spawning-grounds. It is seen, therefore, that 

 while these fish at the commencement of winter seek 

 shelter from the cold by burrowing deeply in the mud, 

 at the approach of spring they revive synchronously 

 with the maturing of the ova of the female and the milt 

 of the male, and, having thus recovered their wonted ac- 

 tivity (during February and March), no severity of the 

 weather appears to deter them from seeking out excep- 

 tionally cold waters for their spawning-grounds. This 

 was shown by the snow-storm referred to, after which the 

 female minnows were still found passing up the brooks, 

 forcing their way up miniature cascades with all the agil- 

 ity of salmon, leaping from eddy to eddy, seeking out the 

 most distant points from their muddy summer haunts ; 

 and here, where but little water flowed, and with the 

 long grass and twigs projecting from it thickly coated 

 with crystal ice and glistening frost, I found the plainly 

 colored mud-minnows lying half hidden among the peb- 

 bles and sandy ridges of the brook's bed. 



Subsequent studies of this fish have resulted in not- 

 ing certain peculiarities in its movements which may 

 have some bearing upon the subject of evolution. On 

 observing the movements of some remarkably large spec- 

 imens in an aquarium, I was forcibly struck with the 

 peculiar use they made of their pectoral fins. These 

 fins in most fish are kept parallel, or nearly so, with the 

 body, and they are usually thin, transparent, and with 

 very flexible rays. These conditions, which vary in the 

 thousands of species of fishes, do not obtain in the in- 

 stance of the mud-minnows. The membrane is dense, 

 the rays numerous and strong, and the fin is often held 

 at a right angle with the body when the fish is in a hori- 



