Nest-Building Fishes. 



163 



BLACK-NOSED DACE. 

 Constructing Their Nest of Pebbles. 



This fish attains a length of about fifteen inches. The finest 

 nests are on the shores of Westminster Island, but they are 

 common on nearly every island that has a sandy, gravelly 

 shore among the many that make up the Thousand Islands. 

 The nest is a pile of stones, sometimes measuring ten feet 

 across at the base, four feet in height, and containing a good- 

 sized cart-load of stones, weighing in all perhaps a ton. 

 Stones from small pebbles to some four inches in length 

 were used, and as some of the nests are placed at consider- 

 able distances from the gravel-beds, and each stone repre- 

 sented a journey, the amount of labor performed, when 

 it is considered that tens of thousands of stones must have 

 been used in the building, certainly was incredible. Each 

 stone is brought in the mouth of the Chub and dropped 

 over the piles, one or more fishes working at the same 

 heap. Some plan is evidently followed in the work, 

 the first deposit of stones being small, and dropped so as to 



