THE CYCLE OF LIFE 423 



carries the eggs about in his breast-pocket. The same 

 is true of some pipe-fishes (Syngnathus). 



Somewhat like the stickleback's nest, but made by the 

 female, is that of the kelp-fish (Heterotrichus rostrata) of 

 the South Carolina kelp-beds. Mr. C. H. Holder observed a 

 female in captivity, and saw her push her way through and 

 round a bunch of seaweed, depositing a white viscid cord, 

 which clung to the fronds, and bore numerous minute white 

 eggs. The male, who is brilliantly coloured at the breeding- 

 season, like the kelp and like his mate at other seasons, 

 mounted guard over the ' nest ', while the female rested. 

 The whole process took a couple of hours, and the result 

 was a globular white mass about the size of a hen's egg. 

 Of the sculpin (Myoxocephalus scorpius), a common shore- 

 fish of northern seas, Dr. Theodore Gill relates that the 

 male may make a rough nest of seaweeds and pebbles for 

 the reception of the spawn, and that he mounts guard over 

 the mass of eggs, clasping it with its fins for a long time. 



In the case of Arius fissus, a shore fish from French Guiana, 

 about twenty eggs ripen at one time. When these are laid, 

 the male takes them into his mouth, where they remain 

 until after hatching, until, in fact, the yolk sac is absorbed. 

 During the whole of this incubation period the father fish 

 is condemned to fast, so that we have a somewhat whimsical 

 instance of that antithesis between nutrition and repro- 

 duction which echoes through life. 



Among Amphibians there are many cases parallel to 

 those which occur among fishes. Thus the male nurse- 

 frog (Alytes), not uncommon in some parts of the Continent, 

 carries the strings of ova on his back and about his hind 

 legs, buries himself in the damp earth until the development 

 of the embryos is approaching completion, then plunges 



