90 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 



a bright-red colour, and his eyes of a brilliant 

 bluish-green, having a perfectly metallic lustre, 

 not unlike the green feathers of a humming-bird ; 

 the whole fish seemed somewhat translucent, 

 and glowing with an internal brightness, He 

 selected a spot nearly in the centre of the trough, 

 and busily set to work to make a collection of 

 delicate fibrous materials, resting on the ground, 

 and matted into an irregular circular mass, some- 

 what depressed, and upwards of an inch in diameter, 

 the top being covered with similar materials, and 

 having in the centre a rather large hole. His 

 work was commenced at noonday, and was com- 

 pleted and the eggs deposited by half-past six in the 

 afternoon. Nothing could exceed the attention 

 from this time evinced by the male fish. He kept 

 constant watch over the nest, every now and then 

 shaking up the materials and dragging out the 

 eggs, and then pushing them into their recep- 

 tacle again, and tucking them up with his snout, 

 arranging the whole to his mind, and again and 

 again adjusting it until he was satisfied ; after 

 which, he hung or hovered over the surface of 

 the nest, his head close to the orifice, the body 

 inclined upwards at an angle of about forty-five 

 degrees, fanning it with the pectoral fins, aided by 

 <i side motion of the tail. This curious manoeuvre 

 was apparently for the purpose of ventilating the 



