A NEST-BUILDING FISH. 



to watcli the extra iudnstrv and affection with whicli the male nurse 

 will dart after the vagrants. He cannot well carry them as a cat does 

 a stray kitten by the back of the neck, but as one may float out and 

 away he follows it and it disappears, having been simply sucked into 

 his mouth. While wondering what has become of the straggler, you 

 notice he turns about, advances to the opening, and puffs or projects it, 

 head over tail, back into the nest, more deftly, indeed, than Zazel is 

 projected out of the monster gun in her Aquarium. You see she is 

 well matched here, and not even original. This goes on constantly 

 until he can see that each one can poise or hold itself in the water. 



It is comical to see one of the Ashlings with half of the body out of 

 its shell, sometimes the head only, sometimes the tail, making 

 wobbling attempts at swimming, and sometimes head and tail out, but 

 with the shell round the middle of the body, like "Johnny Stout" in 

 the pantomime. This liner work may partly be seen in a pool by 

 slipping a white shallow saucer, palette, or an oyster-shell or two, white 

 side up, on the ground, close to the edge of the nest, when the young 

 fry will show out in dark streaks over it, like a shoal of notes of 

 admiration, which certainly they are. Now you may test the braverj- 

 of the parent, for if you pass a stick down amongst the young he will 

 not be forced away, but often will strike at it hard enough for the 

 blow to be felt by the hand. 



The work of the nest building can be watched very well in the 

 pools, but for rearing the young more can be done and observed in the 

 aquarium. A trial or two in rearing generally proves successful. I will 

 assume that the aquarium is prepared in the usual way with balanced 

 vegetation, &c. It should have a bed of neat gravel, and some bits of 

 clinker or stone with a slight hollow in one piece, well placed, to lay 

 the nest in. The water should not be colder than that of the pool. 



One way is to catch a gentleman fish about May and turn him into 

 the aquarium. If he builds and prepares a nest you then introduce, 

 one alone at a time to prevent jealousy, his lady-loves, some six or so, 

 and wait the course of events ; but the better plan I think is this : 

 Watch a few nests in the pool until you find one strong and full, over 

 which the hatching has just begun, shown by his ceasing the con- 

 structing work, and beginning at the vibratory motion or fanning. 

 Have ready a net, made of fine brown or dark green silk, about a 

 quarter inch mesh (such as girls use to net their back hair in), sewn 

 round a ring of about nine inches diameter. Get a small worm (a blood 

 worm is the best, found here in the mud of the ditches) for a bait, 

 without hook, tie to the end of a line of fine silk fastened to a stick. 

 Lower the worm gently over the nest. At first he may retreat, but will 

 soon return and gorge it far enough into his throat for you to raise him 

 out into your net, slipped under him held in your left hand. Turn him 

 out quickly into a jar, as large a one as your false pride will allow you 

 to carry. They appear less excited and alarmed in this than in a glass 

 bottle, and a new one is best for fear of taint of acids or sweets. If 

 you haven't a worm, and will work very slowly, you can generally move 



