290 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



round and round them and rubbing the snout and fore part of 

 its body upon them, in the characteristically eager manner of a 

 hungry Eockling, which curiously suggests the rubbing of a cat 

 round the leg of a person from whom it "wishes for food or 

 caresses. A piece of beef was now presented to the fish, and was 

 eagerly taken. A few minutes later the Eockling w^as easily 

 induced to follow the forceps to the surface of the water, where 

 it took three successive pieces of beef from my fingers. From 

 then until the death of the Eockling by accident on October 27th 

 it was my daily custom with the forceps to entice the fish to 

 come from its resting place amongst the rocks to the surface 

 of the water to be fed. If my finger was rubbed on raw beef, 

 fish, or mussel, and then placed in the water close to the rock- 

 ling, the fish would anxiously press the snout and fore part of 

 its body upon the finger, and move round it in the cat-like 

 manner already mentioned. 



(2) A Eockling of four and a half inches in length, from 

 Weymouth, was placed in an aquarium on November 9th, 1915. 

 It hid itself completely amongst the rocks until the 15th. On 

 the morning of this day (that is, the sixth day of captivity) when 

 its head could be seen at the entrance to the hole in which it had 

 made its home, it was offered a piece of mussel in the forceps. 

 The Eockling seemed divided between hunger and fear, for it 

 alternately approached close to and retreated from the food 

 several successive times, finally taking alarm and dashing 

 suddenly back into its resting place without eating the food. It 

 continued to behave in this way until the morning of the 25th 

 (the sixteenth day of captivity), when it took three successive 

 pieces of mussel from the forceps, without much fear. By the 

 twentieth day of captivity it had learned to come out of its retreat 

 when the forceps were placed at the entrance. On the morning 

 of December 1st (twenty-second day) a further advance in the 

 education of the Eockling, suspected as early as November 27th 

 (eighteenth day) but now rendered certain, was to be noted. It 

 is necessary to illuminate the aquarium, which is in a shady 

 though not dark place, by an electric lamp suspended over the 

 tank, when the fishes are to be fed. On the morning of the 

 twenty- second day it was observed that the sudden illumination 

 of the tank, followed by movement of the surface of the water as 



