No..2:] ZHE EGG OF AMIA AND ITS CLEAVAGE. 321 
young, when about six inches long, make a famous bait for 
pickerel and pike. To use it, run the hook into the mouth 
right up through the centre of the head, through the brain, 
cast a hundred times, catch several fish, and at the end of 
three to six hours he will kick like a mule. Put one hundred 
in a rain-barrel and you can keep them all summer without 
change of water. For the aquarium the young have no equal, 
and on account of the spot in the tail are quite attractive; but 
nothing else but snails can live in the tank. He will killa 
lizard or any other living thing the instant it touches the 
water.’ 
«Dr. Estes says: ‘I have sent these young dogfish hun- 
dreds of miles for the aquarium. It is only necessary to keep 
them in water, a change scarcely being required. The adults 
are the great “jumpers” of the lake. On certain days they 
are to be seen in all directions jumping clean out of the water, 
and turning complete somersaults before again striking. They 
Spawn in May and June among the grass and weeds of the 
sloughs, i£ they can reach them in time. As soon as the 
spring rise comes, usually in May and June, and connects the 
inland sloughs with the lake (Pepin), they run up and over 
into the sloughs, deposit their eggs, and remain near the beds 
and young just as long as they can and not be shut in by the 
receding water. The eggs hatch in eight and ten days, the par- 
ents remaining with the brood two or three weeks, if possible, 
but will leave them much sooner, if necessary, to save them- 
selves. The young will not make any effort to escape to the 
lake until the next season, when, if an opening occurs, they 
come pouring out in countless numbers. At this time we take 
them by stretching the minnow seine across the opening and 
raising it when full. They are now from three to six inches 
long, fat and chubby. J come now to mention a peculiar habit 
of this fish, no account of which I have ever seen. It is this: 
While the parent still remains with the young, uf the family 
become suddenly alarmed, the capacious mouth of the old fish will 
open, and in rushes the entire host of little ones ; the ugly maw 
zs at once closed, and off she rushes to a place of security, when 
again the little captives ave set at liberty. If others are conver- 
