THE WILD MOTHER 219 



brood, of the swarm, of kitten catfish, from the 

 time the spawn is laid. 



Instead of digging a hole under a stone after 

 the fashion of the toadfish, or scooping out a shal- 

 low nest in the marginal sand of the pond, as 

 does the sunfish, the "catty" or hornpout seeks 

 out an abandoned muskrat burrow that runs into 

 the bank from the edge of the water, and here 

 deposits her eggs. As a boy I never questioned 

 but that it was the mother fish on guard. I be- 

 lieve now, however, that it is the father fish in 

 charge. I am hoping to get down to Lupton's 

 Pond this spring to make sure of the matter; for 

 all around the shores of that pond, in every musk- 

 rat hole and runway, I can scare out an old cat- 

 fish by stamping hard on the tussocks or roots 

 above the holes. Out he will come with a flop, 

 and with a dart will make for the bottom of the 

 pond ; and out with him will spread the family 

 of little catfish in a fine black cloud. 



The old fish disappears almost at once, but in 

 a moment you can see him coming back to the 

 scattered family, to the little black things that 

 look like small tadpoles, who soon cluster about 

 him, as bees about their queen, and wiggle 



