1 60 Life and Immortality. 



as the Sun-fishes build in companies, the intruder often finds 

 himself attacked by a whole colony of them. 



Nearly all the Sun-fishes are nest-builders, some forming 

 arbors, as we have seen, others scooping out nests on sandy 

 shoals, while one, the Spotted Sun-fish, is more democratic, 

 affecting muddy streams, where, on the approach of cold 

 weather, it makes a nest in the muddy bottom, and there it 

 lies dormant till the coming spring. 



Who has not made friends with the Dace Rhinichthys 

 atronasus? ^He is a veritable finny jester. We have 

 watched him in his watery retreat, and, perhaps unseen, 

 have played the spy upon his domestic proceedings. 



Life is a gala time to these little fishes. They have seem- 

 ingly never a care or a bother. In jest they join in the 

 chase of some curious minnow that intrudes upon their 

 presence, suddenly changing their course to dash at some 

 resplendent dragon-fly that hovers over the leafy canopy of 

 their home, and as quickly darting off again to attack some 

 bit of floating leaf or imaginary insect. 



All is not play, however, even among the Dace. The 

 warm days of June usher in the sterner duties, the nesting- 

 time. Male and female join in the preparation, and a 

 locality, perhaps in shallow water in some running brook, is 

 selected. Roots, snags and leaves are carried away, both 

 fishes sometimes found tugging away at a single piece, 

 taking it down-stream, and working faithfully and vigor- 

 ously until, in a few hours, a clearing over two feet in 

 diameter is the result. 



There the first eggs are laid. The male, who has retired, 

 soon appears from up-stream, bearing in his mouth a pebble, 

 which is placed in the centre of the clearing. Now they 

 both swim away, but soon returning, each bearing a pebble, 

 that is also dropped upon the eggs. Slowly the work pro- 

 ceeds, until a layer of clean pebbles apparently covers the 

 eggs. A second layer of eggs is now deposited by the 

 female, and these are covered by pebbles as the others had 



