428 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



confinement was proving fatal to some of the young fish, 

 I released them. The parent remained as near as she 

 dared, and as the young clustered about her she seemed 

 to give each a kindly greeting and no doubt a word of 

 advice, for no sooner was the globe emptied than the 

 whole brood surrounded their parent, and quickly swam 

 away in very compact ranks. 



To this day, if fishes talk, the curious adventures of 

 that brood of cat-fish are surely related by the descendants 

 of those who were concerned in them. 



I subsequently repeated this experiment with certain 

 variations, and with even more satisfactory results. I 

 placed the glass globe containing the brood of young cat- 

 fish on the bank of the stream from which they were 

 taken, and in full view of the parent fish, which was 

 greatly excited by being deprived of her charge. This 

 fish at once recognized that her young were not in the 

 creek although they were swimming in water. After a 

 variety of restless movements, its curiosity overcame its 

 discretion ; and it left the creek, and, as best it could, 

 made its way to the base of the globe containing her 

 young, a distance of about two feet. Here she remained 

 for nine minutes, quietly watching her brood, and then 

 returned to the water. In a few moments she returned, 

 having recovered from the effects of exposure to the air. 

 I now liberated the young cat-fish ; and they immediately 

 clustered about their parent and followed her into deep 

 water. 



Wherever you find cat-fish it is quite certain that eels 

 also abound in equal or greater numbers. In most of 

 their habits the two species of fish are quite alike, when 

 in the same ditch or pond ; but the eel has this advan- 

 tage over the cat-fish, that it can leave the water when 



