38o Roosczrlt Wild Life Annals 



with apparent unconcern. At 7 130 the next morning both fish and eggs were gone 

 from this spot, but lying some 10 feet away was a female with a brood of very small 

 young, the male being near by and the fry inactive as they invariably are when 

 just hatched. These adult fish had every appearance of the ones observed the day 

 before. 



"The second and last case observed was a better one than the former for 

 reasons that will be obvious to the reader. On May 13, at 9:30 a. m. the writer 

 discovered a pair of catfish in a depression, as before described, in almut a foot 

 of water and 6 feet from shore. The fish were lying side by side, about an inch 

 apart and apparently inactive. There were no tremors or other evidence of an 

 orgasm, so apparent in the case of black bass and other fishes in the act of 

 depositing spawn and impregnating it, and there were no eggs visible on the lied. 

 although the mud on the bottom between the fish and at each side of them could lie 

 plainly seen. After a little less than an hour, during which, unavoidably, watch 

 was kept for only aliout fifteen minutes, the male was found off the nest a short 

 distance away and the female in the center of the bed over a bunch of eggs such as 

 is descrilied in the former case. It is regrettable that continual watch was not 

 kept, and a further shortcoming in observation is also to be deplored. At " -jO 

 the ne.xt morning the fish and the eggs were gone and, as in the former case, the 

 female with a brood and the male standing guard were some 10 or 12 feet from 

 the vacated bed. In the former case the writer assumed that the eggs had been 

 deposited a few hours before discovered and that at least 24 hours would be 

 required for hatching. This led in the second case to a reckoning on his part that 

 the eggs would not be hatched when he went on duty at 7:30 a. m., an error which 

 will have to be corrected b\- furtiier oltservation. This is the more a pity, as the 

 opportunity was good for determining the exact period of incubation with this 

 fish in a given temperature of water. 



"It should l)e stated that this last lot of eggs was watched from time tu time 

 during the dav and that but little change was noted. Late in the afternoon, .-ilnin^t 

 sundown, it was thiiuglu that the egg mass was somewhat darker, especially around 

 the edges. 



"During these observations we have arrived at the conclusion that the female 

 of this species broods the eggs during inculiation and cares for the young after 

 they are hatched, the male remaining near by in either case and acting apparently 

 as a guard. This opinion as to the division of parental duties is based on the fact 

 that it is the larger fish that broods the eggs and cares for the young, the smaller 

 one standing guard and that, without a single exception in our observations of 

 several broods, the small, or guard fish, has an ugly wound on the top of his head 

 well back of the eyes, where the teeth of his antagonist would come when the jaws 

 of the two are locked, head on, in their fights for the pos.session of the females. 

 This is the opinion of the commercial fishermen at Chautauqua Lake, New York, 

 where many male fish are found locked together, dead or dying, during the lireeding 

 season. We have observed no deaths from this cause, and the fact that all fish that 

 we call guards are wounded as descrilied would seem to indicate that tliey lock 

 and then Ijreak away .-md lock again, thus .^ivini; each cnnili.-itant a rlianre to liave 

 a sore head. 



