Nov2  LHEVEGG, OF AMIA AND TIS S€CLEAVAGE. 315 
reported his experience in obtaining the eggs, together with 
observations on the habits, times, and places of breeding. This 
author describes the floating islands in Pewaukee Lake and 
Fowler Lake and their labyrinth of canals, and speaks as if 
Amia was so select in its choice of breeding-ground that its 
nests were to be found only in these canals. That is not the 
case, however, in either of the lakes just mentioned, and it 
is quite certain that Amia breeds in many places where 
there are no floating islands with canals, —for example, La 
Belle Lake, which Dr. Fiilleborn cites as not containing a 
single nest. 
The spawning season is said to have extended from the 
beginning of May to the first days of June in the summer of 
1894. According to our observations, the best time for collect- 
ing generally falls between the middle of April and the end of 
the first week in May. We have collected eggs the last week 
in March and the first week in June, but these extremes mark 
unusually early or late seasons. 
The time for hatching is estimated to vary between six and 
fourteen days. This is a variation wide enough to include the 
truth without hitting it in either direction. Surely one season’s 
experience ought to have reduced both margins of this conjec- 
ture, and furnished an answer to the question how long a time 
is ordinarily required to hatch these eggs. 
The nests described as ‘not yet filled with eggs,” in which 
male Amiae were found, were probably nests in which the young 
had hatched. The observation furnishes no ground for the 
belief that the male alone makes the nest. The statement 
that the nest is always open to the sunlight does not accord 
with our experience, and the opinion that young and old seek 
deep water after the first of June is entirely erroneous. The 
assertion that nests containing “nur verschimmelte Eier”’ were 
still guarded by males is another error due to superficial exami- 
nation. Such eggs are frequently found in nests containing 
newly hatched larvae, and deserted nests are occasionally occu- 
pied as convenient resting-places during the day. It does not 
follow because an Amia is found in a nest that it must be there 
for the purpose of guarding it. 
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