io Big Game Fishes 



spawn, and out of every million eggs deposited, a 

 very small percentage, certainly not ten, attain the 

 adult stage. There are great concerted move- 

 ments at the spawning period. Some fishes pair. 

 The female, as a rule, pays no attention to the 

 eggs or young, and in nearly all instances where 

 nests are constructed, as in the case of the 

 stickleback, the sunfish, Semotilus, lamprey, and 

 many more, it is the male which builds the nest. 

 The Acara carries the eggs and later the young in 

 its mouth. 



The spawn is deposited in the open sea, in 

 the case of the tuna, albacore, bonito, and other 

 pelagic fishes ; at the surface in bays, as in the 

 case of the flying-fish. Some fishes, as certain 

 California sculpins, attach eggs in great clusters 

 to rocks ; others again, as the rock-bass, form a 

 simple nest, while others, as the salmon, deposit 

 the eggs on sandy or gravelly bottom ; some, as 

 the blackfish, among weeds or grass. Over the 

 eggs the male distributes the milt which impreg- 

 nates them, and in a greater or less time the 

 young appear, immediately becoming the prey 

 to a thousand enemies. Some fishes possess the 

 schooling instinct, as the herring, sardine, Cali- 

 fornia barracuda, mullet, and others ; the ma- 



