Fishes that Build Nests 



407 



proved that the famous Greek 

 philosopher told the truth. Aris- 

 totle wrote as follows (Book ix, 

 Chapter 25, Section 6) : 



"Of the river fishes, the male 

 glanis takes great care of its 

 young. For the female, having 

 brought forth, departs ; but the 

 male, where the greatest deposit 

 of eggs has been formed, re- 

 mains by them watching, render- 

 ing no other service except keep- 

 ing ofif other fishes from destroy- 

 ing the young. He does this for 

 forty or fifty days, until the 

 young are sufficiently grown to 

 escape from the other fishes. And 

 he is known to the fishermen 

 wherever he may chance to be 

 watching his eggs ; for he keeps 

 off the fishes by rushing move- 

 ments, and by making a noise 

 and moaning. And he remains 

 by the eggs with so much of 

 natural affection that the fisher- 

 men, when the eggs adhere to 

 deep roots, bring them up to the 

 shallowest place they can ; but 

 he does not even then leave his 

 offspring, but if he chance to be 

 a young fish he is easily taken by 

 the hook, because he snaps at all the fishes 

 that approach him ; but if he is already 

 accustomed to this, and has swallowed 

 hooks before, he does not even then de- 

 sert his young, but breaks the hook by 

 a very strong bite." 



the; AMERICAN CATFISH 



In cleaning out a nest, this catfish car- 

 ries off pebbles from 3^4 to ^ of an inch 

 in diameter. Dr Hugh M. Smith thus 

 describes the nest-building of a pair of 

 catfish in an aquarium : "The pair of fish, 

 during the first night they were in the 

 aquarium, removed all the gravel from 

 over a space nearly 2 feet long and i 1/3 

 feet wide, upward of a gallon of stone 

 being transferred to the end of the tank." 

 A pint or more of gravel was then scat- 

 tered on the nest by an attendant, but in 



Gill, Smithsonian Institution 



Aristotle's Catfish (Parasilimis Aristotelis) 

 on Nest (Ideal) 



a few minutes the fish had completely 

 freed the nest again. 



The male remains on guard for several 

 weeks after the eggs are hatched, to pro- 

 tect the young fish. 



THE BOWEIN OR MUDEISH 



The bowfin is a strong and well-armed 

 fish, both as to the bony armature of the 

 head as well as the teeth. It is one of 

 the large fishes, when fully mature at- 

 taining a length of over 2 feet, often 2j4, 

 or even somewhat more. As usual among 

 fishes, the females average larger than 

 the males. The males, apparently, are 

 much more numerous. 



The geographical range of the bowfin 

 is quite extensive, and yet restricted in 

 a peculiar way. It is not found in the 

 New England States (except in Lake 



