NATURE'S CALENDAR 6i 



for life more fierce, the slaughter more April ^ 



prodigious, than among the inhabitants ~^ — 



of the waters of the earth. 



Some brook fishes, however, lay larger 

 and fewer eggs because they are able to 

 care for them to a considerable extent. 

 Such IS the case with the sunfishes, the 

 commonest example of w^hich is the 

 pumpkin-seed, beloved of all young ang- 

 lers and some old ones. These are most 

 brilliant of hue and at their best now ; 

 and it is now, too, that they are most 

 easily caught, for all are near shore, lay- 

 ing their eggs or guarding them. For 

 this they prefer still, clear water, and dur- 

 ing this month, in the more southerly 

 parts of the country (but not until sum- 

 mer in New York State) the female sun- 

 fish prepares herself a circular nest by 

 removing all twigs, dead plants, and so 

 forth, from a spot on the bottom as big 

 as a dinner-plate, where she digs away 

 the sand and gravel to a depth of three Or 

 four inclies. In this clean hollow she 

 deposits her spawn. " It is curious," 

 wrote Dr. Kirtland, long ago, "to see 

 how she guards the nest against all in- 

 truders, seeing in every fish, even those 

 of her own species, only an enemy, and 

 becoming restless and uneasy until she 

 has driven it away from her nursery. We 

 often find groups of these nests placed 

 near each other along the margin of the 

 pond or river, but always in very shallow 

 water. . . . They are frequently encircled 



