320 WHITMAN AND EYCLESHYMER. [VoL. XII. 
one side of its nest, in which case no eggs will be found on the 
bottom. When excavations are made the depth may vary from 
a few inches to a foot, depending upon how much mud and 
weeds have to be removed in order to get the surface required 
for the eggs. The nest is generally from 50 to 60cm. in 
diameter, and more or less circular, varying considerably in 
adaptation to the conditions of the ground. 
The author’s remarks on the breeding habits end with a bit 
of romance funny enough to claim a place beside the story of 
Dr. Estes, which will be given presently. 
Dr. Dean says: “A fine nest of eggs was found to be 
entirely deserted at a time when the young could not have 
been older than twenty-four hours. The closest search in and 
about the nest revealed no trace of their whereabouts, although 
from their larval habits it was thought that they should surely 
be found attached to the neighboring weeds, or deep in the 
mass of root fibres and detritus of the nest bottom. They had 
evidently left the nest in a body, and were nowhere in the 
immediate neighborhood. It was plausibly suggested by Mr. G. 
W. Kosmak, who then accompanied the writer, that they had 
been taken away by the male fish, attached to him by their 
sucking-discs. It is certain that when the male reappears it is 
with a swarm of nestlings; but they are now well grown 
(5 to 1% inches).” 
The earliest paper dealing with the habits of Amia to which 
we have to refer is one cited by Dr. Goode from the Sports- 
man’s Gazetteer, pp. 324-326, 1887.4 It is here that the story 
of Dr. Estes, above alluded to, is found. 
«The best description of the habits of this fish,” says Goode, 
‘“‘is here quoted from the pen of Charles Hallock: 
««They take frogs, minnows, and sometimes the spoon. 
Their habitat is deep water, where they drive everything 
before them. They are very voracious and savage. Their 
teeth are so sharp and their jaws so strong that they have 
been known to bite a two-pound fish clean in two the very 
first snap. They are as tenacious of, life asthe celeb 
* Geo. Brown Goode: Natural History of Useful Aquatic Animals, pp. 659, 
660. 1884. 
See 
