112 THE STORY OF FISH LIFE. 



the beaches of our shores, and are known as 

 " mermaid's pinboxes." They may be likened to 

 padded stretchers, being oblong in form, with the 

 corners produced into four short handles. Some- 

 times these will, if opened, be found to contain a 

 young skate comfortably stowed away inside. 

 The eggs of the dog-fishes resemble those of the 

 skate, but the four handle-like processes are 

 much longer, and serve as anchors by twisting 

 round sea-weed. The egg of the Port Jackson 

 shark, Cestracion, is quite remarkable, being 

 cone-shaped, and encircled with a broad spirally- 

 twisted fold running the whole length of the egg. 

 The egg of the chimera (Callorliynchus), an ally 

 of the sharks, is perhaps the only egg with a 

 mimetic resemblance to foreign an object. It is 

 elliptical in form, and bordered by a fringe, so as 

 to give a close resemblance to a piece of sea- weed. 



Amongst the more highly specialised bony 

 fishes, the dominant form .j of the present day, 

 the eggs may either be enclosed within a horny 

 capsule, as in the sharks though the form and 

 size of the capsule differs or are quite un- 

 protected. 



The blennies afford us an instance where the 

 eggs are enclosed within a horny capsule. This 

 capsule is attached by its base to sea-weed or 

 other fixed object, till the young hatches out. 

 The eggs form little clusters of small, upright, 

 and somewhat pear-shaped bodies. 



Sometimes, as in the case of the fresh-water 

 perch (Perca fluvialilis), the eggs are invested by 

 a gelatinous envelope of a viscid nature, causing 

 the eggs to stick together in masses. These 



