44 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



quently be seen with her family around her, protecting and 

 seeking feeding grounds for her dusky progeny. The Stickle- 

 back builds a nest, mounts guard, and pugnaciously warns 

 off all intruders of like, or even larger size. 



All fish, in spawning, instinctively seek water containing 

 more or less atmospheric air; Carp, and other Cyprinidss 

 requiring less for the vivification of their eggs than other 

 fresh-water species. 



Griffith, in his Animal Kingdom, says some of the Pelagian 

 genera spawn amongst floating grass and sea-weed, and says 

 that broad bands of fish-spawn have been seen south of the 

 equator, producing mile-long patches of unruffled surface. 

 I doubt whether this can be so ; if true, such instances are 

 rare exceptions to the general rule of spawning on the bottom. 



The family of Gaddidse, which includes Codfish, it is sup- 

 posed spawn in deep water, though this cannot be at any con- 

 siderable distance beneath the surface, as the solar light, 

 which is necessary to the hatching of the ova, does not 

 penetrate many fathoms. 



The knowledge attainable respecting the haunts, habits 

 and breeding of Pelagian fish is necessarily limited. 



Oviparous animals are the most prolific, and of these, fish 

 excel all others. A full-grown Carp is said to produce from 

 one hundred thousand to two hundred thousand eggs, a Perch 

 thirty thousand, a Pike from thirty to eighty thousand, and a 

 Codfish a half a million. It is said that a single pair of 

 Herrings, if allowed to reproduce undisturbed and multiply 

 for twenty years, would not only supply the whole world with 

 abundance of food, but would become inconveniently numerous. 

 The average number of ova in a Salmon is stated at twelve 

 thousand ; if it were possible that all these eggs produced fish, 

 and they arrived at maturity, there would be twelve thousand 

 Salmon, or six thousand pairs, whose produce, at the same 



