324 On the Breeding-habits of Chromis philander. 
Chromides take their young into their mouths, I called into 
my study some of my family, and asked them to watch what 
happened when I revolved the table-top upon which the 
aquarium was standing. Half a return of the revolving top 
was sufficient: the whole shoal quickly gathered about the 
parent’s head; he opened his mouth, and into it swam the 
sixty little fish, leaving us to wonder what had become of 
them. It was a wonderful sight and made a vivid impression 
upon my mind. It is difficult to describe such a sight, one 
must see it to appreciate it. Swiftly, but in perfect order 
and with great grace, all the young swam into the open 
mouth of the parent and disappeared. I ascertained that 
they measured a little more than one third of an inch in 
length. The parent fish, as I have said, only measured 
two and three quarter inches, yet he found room to pack 
away in his throat over sixty young, each measuring a third 
of an inch in length. Once safely within his mouth, he did 
not let them out again for several hours, and then I was 
fortunate enough to see him expel them. ‘T'wo or three 
were first thrown out of the mouth (shot out as a smoker puffs 
out smoke from his mouth). Then a few more were thrust 
out, until nearly thirty were swimming about; then with a 
circular motion he scattered all the rest almost simultaneously 
into the larger world of water contained in the tank. 
“‘ Now that the young fish were out the parent fish watched 
over them. I had introduced two freshwater shrimps into 
the tank a few days before. The fish had taken no notice of 
them, but now the jealous parent chased these poor shrimps 
up and down the tank in such a savage way that I had to 
take them out. I may add that whenever I wanted to see 
the young fish swim into their parent’s mouth it was only 
necessary to make some slight disturbance on the table, and at 
once the beautiful and strange scene was enacted. After two 
or three days the little fish began to venture to the extreme 
limits of the aquarium hunting for food; and now, when 
danger was near, the parent fish did not wait for the fry to 
come to him—in fact, they did not seem quite so eager to be 
swallowed as at first,—but he went after them, gathering them 
up one by one from all parts of the tank until every one was 
safe within his mouth. Hach evening also, at about sundown, 
all the young fish were gathered up and kept in the mouth all 
night. I did not watch all night, but when I looked during 
the night I could never see any of the fish about; so I con- 
cluded he never let them out after collecting them at sundown 
until the next morning. 
“The young fish began to grow not only in size but in 
