330 ON THE NESTING OF CALLICHTHYS LITTORALIS. [JullC 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 

 {Porphyria 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 Mare, 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 36 



1877. June-December 44 



1878. June-December 68 



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 



Total in 7 years 491 



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 country: — 



" 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 1 1th they began a new one ; it consisted of pieces of 

 Valisneria, all the leaves of the Nymphcea 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 long 

 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 



' Giintber, Cat. Fishe.'*, t. p. 227; Sclater, P.Z.S. 1885, p. 717. 



