FISH AS FATHEBS. 



COMPARATIVELY little is known as yet, even in this age of 

 publicity, about the domestic arrangements and private 

 life of fishes. Not that the creatures themselves shun 

 the wiles of the interviewer, or are at all shy and retiring, 

 as a matter of delicacy, about their family affairs ; on 

 the contrary, they display a striking lack of reticence in 

 their native element, and are so far from pushing parental 

 affection to a quixotic extreme that many of them, like 

 the common rabbit immortalised by Mr. Squeers, ' fre- 

 quently devour their own offspring.' But nature herself 

 opposes certain obvious obstacles to the pursuit of know- 

 ledge in the great deep, which render it difficult for the 

 ardent naturalist, however much he may be so disposed, 

 to carry on his observations with the same facility as in 

 the case of birds and quadrupeds. You can't drop in 

 upon most fish, casually, in their own homes ; and when 

 you confine them in aquariums, where your opportunities 

 of watching them through a sheet of plate-glass are con- 

 siderably greater, most of the captives get huffy under 

 the narrow restrictions of their prison life, and obstinately 

 refuse to rear a brood of hereditary helots for the mere 

 gratification of your scientific curiosity. 



