On the morning of the ninth day the 

 little Chanchitos were suffieiently developd 

 to leave the sand holes and I found the 

 parent fishes surrounded by a black ball 

 of little fishes which gave them the appear- 

 ance of being in the midst of a swarm of 

 bees. If any of the little fishes strayd too 

 far away from the others, one of the old fish 

 would gently gather up the little one in its 

 mouth and return it to its fellows. The 

 parent fishes seemd very proud of their 

 family, and it was amusing to see the 

 comical way in wliich the old fish every 

 now and then would ])eek into the nest. 

 After the little Clianchitos were able to 

 swim about, the old fish became very jeal- 

 ous of their little family, and would fight 

 like tigers if any one disturbd them, in fact 

 I had to caution visitors not to tease them 

 or approach too close to the aquarium, as 

 several times the fish struck the glass sides 

 of the aquarium with sufficient force to 

 stun themselves. 



The little fish requird no food until nine 

 days' old, then they were given the live 

 food until old enuf to eat the artificial 

 food and fresh scraped meat, of which 

 they are very fond. By actual count, there 

 were 285 little Chanchitos and I succeeded 

 in raising 280 of them. 



The little Chanchitos are kept with the 

 big ones and the little fellows are the bosses 

 of the aquarium. If the parents happen 

 to get fed first, the young ones appear and 

 get the food out of the mouths of the old 

 ones if they can reach it and the old ones 

 seem to take it good naturedly. 



During the breeding season tlie old fish 

 assumd the most intense colors, the eye is 

 bright red, the body of tlie fish bright olive 

 green, inclining to bronze, the tail and fins 

 jet black, as are also the seven cross bars 

 on the body, which give the fish the ap- 

 pearance of a zebra. The Chanchito is 

 found in tlie waters of the La Plata basin, 

 Soutli America, and attains a length of 

 nine or ten inches, it is a hardy, healthy 

 fish, of striking appearance and interest- 

 ing habits and easy to keep in the aqua- 

 rium 



A Hunt for Darters 



TiiAc V H. Holmes 

 Chicago 



On one of tliose delightful October days 

 when the mere suggestion of the approach 

 of Winter adds zest to one's enjoyment of 

 the lingering warmtli of Summer, four 

 zealous members of the C. F. F. C. hied 

 themselves out of Chicago into the haunts 

 of wary, little darters which had been dis- 

 covered in a tiny stream some thirty miles 

 away. After a pleasant hour's ride thru 

 fields of tattered cornstalks and across 

 stubble and pasturelands we dropt off the 

 train to find ourselves in a little village, 

 perched on the side of a hill, along whose 

 base meandered, in serpentine course, a 

 brook of clear, cold water, now babling 

 over pebbly shallows and again purrino- 

 in deep holes nestld between banks of 

 green sod. 



Donning our hip boots and toting our 

 nets and pails we made a bee-line for a 

 broad shallows Adsible a hundred yards 

 away just below an old red bridge. Start- 

 ing in on the lower end of the shallows two 

 of us carried the minnow seine in a cres- 

 cent line across and up the stream, and, 

 dragging it carefully over the stones, we 

 made a quick sweep up to one shore, keep- 

 ing the down-stream end of the net snug 

 against the shore while the other end of 

 the net made a circular path out across 

 the stream and back to the shore at a 

 l)oint farther up stream. At first we provd 

 to be too clumsy, for we merely got 

 glimpses of "the fish tliat got away," but, 

 gaining experience we soon began to find 

 the net sparkling with leaping, flashing 

 fishes. Most of the hauls consisted of 

 "Johnny" darters, but Floyd's practist 

 eyes soon detected more rare and j)rizd 

 specimens and so Fantail and Rainbow 

 darters were soon being exultingly ex- 

 hibited by Carl in his pocket globe whicli 

 he had so thoughtfully brought along. 



Again and again we dragged tliat little 



