84 



aquatic JLitt 



tion of plants, the most species of tropical 

 fishes and the largest number of native 

 fishes, and also received first prize for 

 the number of classes entered, showing 

 fishes in 45 classes against 32 entered by 

 his nearest competitor. 



No record was kept of the attendance, 

 but 900 copies of a little pamphlet called 

 "The Daphnian" were distributed. 



A True Fish Story 



Professor Roy L. Moodie, of the Uni- 

 versity of Kansas, related a good fish 

 story in the American Naturalist for 

 March, 1909. He said that cattle in Ne- 

 braska were seriously infested by the 

 Texas horn fly, Haematobia serrata, a 

 pest that had been introduced from Eu- 

 rope. These flies "literally swarmed 

 around the cattle, and since the majority 

 of the stock was dehorned, the insects 

 would settle all over the backs and sides 

 of the animals, although they were in 

 some cases observed to cluster around the 

 horn bases." 



"At Harris' ford, where the collecting 

 parties crossed Running Water, several 

 hundred cattle watered all summer. . . . 



"The cattle would almost always enter 

 the stream at the shallow part of the ford 

 and gradually wade up stream, drinking 

 as they went, until they came to the deep 

 place near the fence where the water 

 reached well up on their bellies. The 

 chubs, Semotilus atromaculatus, seemed 

 to be unusually numerous at the ford, 

 and we often wondered at the great num- 

 bers of the little fishes which we could 

 see in schools in the clear water. Their 

 presence was soon explained. As soon 

 as the cattle entered the stream at the 

 shallow place in the ford the chubs would 

 come out from their cool and shady re- 

 treats under the grasses along the sides 

 of the bank and hasten to meet the cattle 



at the shallows. Often we saw as many 

 as a dozen or more chubs following a sin- 

 gle cow. As soon as the water came near 

 the bellies of the animals the chubs would 

 leap out of the water and catch the horn 

 flies from the sides of the cattle. Often 

 we saw them leap as much as half their 

 length out of the water to secure a fly 

 which was high up on the animal's side. 

 These observations were made on several 

 consecutive days, and on the last day but 

 one I was so fortunate as to secure a 

 photograph of a chub in the act of catch- 

 ing a fly from the side of a cow, and the 

 photograph is published herewith. 



"That the fishes actually learned that 

 the dark spots on the sides of the cattle 

 made good food there can be no doubt. 

 Just how they first learned it we may not 

 know. The chubs had further learned 

 that the coming of the cattle meant food 

 for them, hence they would meet the cat- 

 tle in the shallows and follow them to 

 deeper water." 



Dr. Moodie proves his story with a 

 good photograph. 



Scientific education is necessary with 

 practical education, for if we raise the 

 standards of work we must also raise 

 the standards of knowledge in our na- 

 tion. 



You can gauge an aquarist by the con- 

 tents of his bookcase. Are you preserv- 

 ing for reference every available scrap of 



literature ? 



♦ 



If you think you have troubles, just 

 watch a fat man trying to catch a sword- 

 tail in a 75-gallon aquarium — with a 3- 



inch net ! 



♦ 



Keep a note book near your aquaria 

 and jot in it every little observation of 

 interest. Don't trust to memory. The 

 best of us err at times. 



