FISHES. 229 



able depths; and some occupy various intermediate stations. 

 When we reflect on the great amount of animal life which 

 the ocean in its several zones of depth must thus support, 

 and consider that by far the greater number of young fishes 

 never attain maturity, but form the appointed food of their 

 more powerful neighbours, it is obvious that the young fry 

 must be produced in numbers sufficient to bear this ceaseless 

 destruction, and yet to have among them a sufficient number 

 of individuals which escape these perils to attain a certain 

 degree of maturity, and, by the deposition of their ova, prevent 

 the species from perishing. And accordingly we find here, as 

 in every other department of nature, that HE who framed the 

 mighty scale of created beings has so arranged the living 

 mechanism, that the continual production is equal to the 

 continual waste. The number of ova which some of our 

 native fishes produce is so very astonishing that it would be 

 regarded with doubt, except on the most unimpeachable 

 testimony. So many as 280,000 have been taken from a 

 Perch of only half a pound weight. Mr. W. Thompson found 

 101,935 ova in a Lump-sucker (Clyopterus lumpus) of fifteen 

 inches in length,* and the Cod-fish is said to produce several 

 millions. 



In general, with the deposition of the spawn the care of 

 the parents for their future offspring terminates; but this is 

 not invariably the case. The statement of Aristotle that 

 there was a fish (Phycis) in the Mediterranean which makes 

 a nest and deposits its spawn therein has been confirmed; 

 and Olivi adds, that the male guards the female during the 

 act of oviposition, and the young fry during their development. 

 Dr. Hancock has observed similar habits in some Demerara 

 fishes called " Hassars." Both male and female remain by 

 the side of the nest till the spawn is hatched, with as much 

 solicitude as a hen guards her eggs; and they courageously 

 attack any assailant. Hence the negroes frequently take 

 them by putting their hands into the water close to the nest; 

 on agitating which, the male Hassar springs furiously at 

 them, and is thus captured."! 



But we need not go so far as the West Indies, to find 



* Annals Nat. Hist. vol. iii. p. 44, 



f Quoted in Owen's Lectures. A nest of the Hassar, with the spawn 

 and the parent fish, is in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, 

 London. 



VOL. u. B 2 



