STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF LEPIDOSTEUS; 741 



off, one or more of the males would return as if scouting. If 

 frightened, he would retire for some time ; then another scout 

 would appear. If all promised well, the females, with the atten- 

 dant males, would come back. Each female was accompanied 

 by from one to four males. Most often, a male rested against 

 each side, with their bills reaching up toward the back of her 

 head. Closely crowded together, the little party would pass 

 back and forth over the rocky bed they had selected, sometimes 

 passing the same spot half-a-dozen times without dropping an 

 egg, then suddenly would indulge in an orgasm ; and, lashing 

 and plashing the water in all directions with their convulsive 

 movements, would scatter at the same instant the eggs and the 

 sperm. This ended, another season of moving slowly back and 

 forth was observed, to be in turn followed by another of excite- 

 ment. The eggs were excessively sticky. To whatever they 

 happened to touch, they stuck, and so tenaciously that it was 

 next to impossible to release them without tearing away a 

 portion of their envelopes. It is doubtful whether the eggs 

 would hatch if removed. As far as could be seen at the time, 

 upon or under the rocks to which the eggs were fastened there 

 was an utter absence of anything that might serve as food for 

 the young Fishes. 



" Other Fishes, Bull-heads, &c., are said to follow the Bill-fish 

 to eat the spawn. It may be so. It was not verified. Certainly 

 the points under observations were unmolested. During the 

 afternoon of the i8th of May a few eggs were scattered on 

 several of the beds. On the igth there were more. With the 

 spear and the snare, several dozens of both sexes of the Fish 

 were taken. Taking one out did not seem greatly to startle the 

 others. They returned very soon. The males are much smaller 

 than the average size of the females ; and, judging from those 

 taken, would seem to have as adults greater uniformity in size. 

 The largest taken was a female, of 4 feet ii inch in length. 

 Others of 2 feet 6 inches contained ripe ova. With the igth of 

 May all disappeared, and for a time the weather being mean- 

 while cold and stormy there were no signs of their continued 

 existence to be met with. Nearly two weeks later, on the 3ist 

 of May, as stated by Mr Henry J. Perry, they again came up, 

 not in small detachments on scattered points as before, but in 



