164 FISH AS FATHERS. 



the full amphibian honours of four-legged maturity. 

 Well, Aspredo among cat-fish manages her brood in 

 much the same fashion ; only she carries her eggs beneath 

 her body instead of on her back like her amphibious rival. 

 When spawning time approaches, and Aspredo's fancy 

 lightly turns to thoughts of love, the lower side of her 

 trunk begins to assume, by anticipation, a soft and 

 spongy texture, honeycombed with pits, between which 

 are arranged little spiky protuberances. After laying 

 her eggs, the mother lies flat upon them on the river 

 bottom, and presses them into the spongy skin, where 

 they remain safely attached until they hatch out and 

 begin to manage for themselves in life. It is curious 

 that* the only two creatures on earth which have hit out 

 independently this original mode of providing for their 

 offspring should both be citizens of Guiana, where the 

 rivers and marshes must probably harbour some special 

 danger to be thus avoided, not found in equal intensity 

 in other fresh waters. 



A prettily marked fish of the Indian Ocean, allied, 

 though not very closely, to the pipe fishes, has also the 

 distinction of handing over the young to the care of the 

 mother instead of the father. Its name is Solenostoma 

 (I regret that no more popular title exists), and it has a 

 pouch, formed in this case by a pair of long broad fins, 

 within which the eggs are attached by interlacing threads 

 that push out from the body. Probably in this instance 

 nutriment is actually provided through these threads for 

 the use of the embryo, in which case we must regard the 

 mechanism as very closely analogous indeed to that 

 which obtains among mammals. 



