246 Prof. M'Intosh's Notes from the 



shows no mark of injury, such as would be caused by 

 tlie teeth of a fish or by the rasping " tongue " of a shell- 

 fish. The eggs lie evenly together, and their capsules are 

 uninjured. In all probability, therefore, the depressions are 

 due to pressure applied by a blunt surface immediat-ely after 

 deposition, wlien the mass is soft, and it may be by the snout 

 or other part of the male as he fertilizes them. 



The eggs are chiefly to be found from low-water mark to 

 half-tide mark, often deposited in corners or in holes in rocks. 

 They generally are exposed to the wash of the sea, at St. An- 

 drews, for instance, facing the east. 



In this condition they are eagerly eaten by the rooks, 

 starlings, and rats. The food-fishes and others are also 

 extremely partial to them. Thus, at the end of April it 

 occasionally happens that codling caught off the rocks have 

 their stomachs distended with the eggs of the lumpsucker. 

 Even such small fishes as Yarrell's blenny take the same 

 food. 



The care which certain male bony fishes take of the eggs is 

 well known, while Dr. Giinther mentions only two cases in 

 which females do so. In this country the males of the river 

 bull-head, the lumpsucker, and the marine and freshwater 

 sticklebacks are familiar instances. 



Most authors who have described C?/cZo^^e?-?/s have observed 

 this feature in the male; indeed, it is sufficient under ordinary 

 circumstances to try to push him off guard with a stick to 

 bring it out clearly *. Various interpretations, however, have 

 been placed on the habit, some supposing that the mere fact 

 of the male being in the neighbourhood at deposition sufficed 

 to account for its subsequent appearance near the eggs; while 

 others, after Fabricius, bestowed considerable attention on 

 the description of the instinct. In regard to the remarks of 

 Fabricius, it is doubtful if the wolf-fish would be much incon- 

 venienced by tlie attacks of the lumpsucker. Even in its 

 postlarval condition the young wolf-fish makes an easy prey 

 of the young lumjisucker. 



As soon as the eggs are hatched the males are released, 

 and the young spread themselves over the rock-pools in 

 the neighbourliood in hundreds. It is unlikely, however, 

 that they are dispersed by specially adhering to the body 

 of the male, though they quickly cling to anything and 

 even to each other. Their home for some time appears to be 

 the littoral region, and especially the rock-pools, and they 



» Vide Ann. .^- Mnp-. Nat. Ifist. .Aujr. 1886, p. 81, -'On the Paternal 

 Instincts of i'l/c/optfius," bv \V. C. M. 



