330 ON THE NESTING OF CALLICHTHYS LITTORALIS. [June 29, 
June 29, 1886. 
Osbert Salvin, Esq., F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 
The Secretary exhibited, on behalf of Mr. John Brazier, of Sydney, 
N.S.W., C.M.Z.S., a series of 55 eggs of the Pacific Porphyrio 
(Porphyrio vitiensis), and read a note forwarded by Mr. Brazier 
showing the extraordinary fecundity of the individual of this species 
which had laid them. 
The bird in question was obtained at Maré, Loyalty Islands, in 
May 1873, and had been kept in captivity in Sydney until December 
1882, when she was accidentally killed by poison. She had laid 
eggs as follows :— 
1876. June—December ............ ne: Oe EO 
VS/ 7 Une LeCeMbDer ay ates cha -steiace © citieie creer eee 
S798): <)ime—December- 4/2 ee Se ee Oe es 
1879. January, February, and May—December...... 83 
1880. January, and March—December ............ 93 
1881. January, February, and April-December .... 101 
1882. January, February, and April—October ...... 66 
‘Poulin "years. 20) Soe ee BON 
The Secretary read the following letter, addressed to._him by 
Captain J. A. M. Vipan, F.Z.S., on the nesting of a South-American 
Siluroid fish (Callichthys littoralis*) in this couatry :— 
“ Stibbington Hall, Wansford. 
June 25th, 1886. 
“ Dear Dr. ScLATER, 
«Two Cascaduras (Callichthys littoralis), from Trinidad, that I have 
in my aquarium, commenced making a nest on June 6th; but that, 
and the one they made on June 9th, they soon pulled to pieces. On 
the night of the 11th they began a new ene; it consisted of pieces of 
Valisneria, all the leaves of the Nymphea that were growing in the 
tank, which they bit off close to the roots of the plants, and a great 
quantity of river-moss (Fontinalis antipyretica), each piece being two 
or three times the size of the fish, so that they must have had hard 
work to bring them to the surface. They worked these materials 
together by some mucous substance until the outside was hard, the 
whole being under a quarter of an inch thick ; they next buoyed up the 
structure with a quantity of mucous foam until it was raised three and 
a half inches above the water. The whole nest was nine inches Jong 
and seven inches wide, and somewhat resembled a finger-glass turned 
upside down on the top of the water, with the interior filled with froth. 
The fish kept swimming close under it all the time on their backs 
and filling it with foam. When finished, on the 12th, the female 
‘ Giinther, Cat. Fishes, v. p. 227; Sclater, P. Z.S. 1885, p. 717. 
