9136 Fishes. 
was never syringed, but the surface occasionally agitated by means of 
a stick, in order to prevent a film of dust accumulating. 
At page 181 of his ‘Tenby,’ Mr. Gosse gives some very interesting 
particulars respecting the reproduction of the Lepidogaster. He says: 
“Tt is the habit of this tiny fish to lay its eggs in the interior of old 
shells of bivalves that lie on the bottom ; and it would appear that it 
is one of those species which exercise a parental care over their off- 
spring, watching the eggs until the young are hatched. We can 
scarcely call it incubation ; but the little animal coils itself up among 
its spawn, adhering by the sucking disk of its belly to the interior of 
the shell, and continuing there with remarkable pertinacity. I have 
kept my specimen now for seven days, during the whole of which time 
I do not believe it has left the old cockle shell even for a moment, 
night or day, though it frequently shifts its position a little, now and 
then shuffling half round. Yet its quarters seem none of the most 
comfortable, since it finds room to sit only by coiling its tail on either 
side by its bedy. 
“The embryo$ have continued to be matured from day to day. On 
the first introduction of the nest from the depths of the sea to the light 
and warmth of a vase in my window, they came out numerously and 
rapidly, but after the first day the births were much less. frequent. 
Now, however, on the seventh day of captivity, there is again an 
impulse to the process, and the remaining eggs are hatching fast. 
“ The eggs are interesting objects beneath a lens. At first it seems 
as if each contained only two black specks in a globule of pellucid 
grecnish jelly ; but, on closer attention, we perceive through the per- 
fectly transparent egg-shell the form of the little embryo fish. It is 
coiled up in a circle, the centre of which is occupied by the head, 
and this, which is by far the largest portion of the animal, consists 
almost entirely of the two staring eyes. As soon as the young escapes, 
it swims along by a wriggling motion, usually seeking the surface of 
the water and that side of the glass which is next the light.” 
Alas! I never had an opportunity of observing the development of 
the young of the sucking fish, for my two remaining specimens suc- 
cumbed under the influence of the cold, frosty nights in January. One 
morning, on going to the aquarium, I found them both rigid and 
neatly dead, although placed in the warmest room in the house. 
The temperature of the water was about 36°. I tried removal to a 
smaller vessel, full of fresh sea-water, in a position nearer to the fire, 
but this failed to revive them. Vertebrate life, as a rule, cannot sus- 
tain the extremes of temperature to the extent that invertebrate life 
a 
