500 CICHLID.E 



List of specimens examined : — 



8 Lake Mareotis,— Schoeller, 1904. 



18 In a kore at Kaka, White Nile.— Loat. 17-18.1.01. 



60 In a kore at Gharb-el-Aish, White Nile.— Loat, 6-14.4,01. 



10 In a kore at Fashoda. — Loat, 15.3.01. 



1 G-ondokoro.— Loat, 4.2.02. 



2 Bujiju, South Buddu, Uganda.— M. T. Dawe, 1905. 

 1 Mbusini. — Dr. Stuhlmann, 1888. (Type.) 



A number of the specimens collected by Mr. Loat carried eggs or young in their mouth 

 and pharynx, the eggs measuring 1J to 2 millimetres in diameter. Barely a score of 

 them, closely packed, fill the bucco-pharyngeal cavity. These specimens are all of the 

 female sex. Mr. Schoeller, to whom we owe the discovery of this fish near Alexandria, 

 has made interesting observations on its habits in an aquarium. 



He found the fish very pugnacious, and difficult to keep in peace with any other 

 individual except during the breeding-season, when the male shows himself full of 

 attentions to the female and exhibits his brilliant nuptial costume. He is then further 

 remarkable for his tremulous movements when revolving round the female, and makes, 

 with his tail, a little hole in the sand about two inches in diameter, picking out little 

 stones with his mouth. According to the disposition of the female towards him, the 

 courtship may last from a few days to several weeks. No other male is allowed 

 to approach without being desperately attacked and bitten with fury. One day 

 Mr. Schoeller noticed that one of the females on which he kept an eye as apparently 

 distended with ova had lost her rotundity and was swimming about with swollen 

 throat and erected gill-covers, and to his surprise he observed that her mouth, which 

 was nearly completely closed, was full of dark yellow eggs. 



On removing the female from the aquarium to a smaller receptacle, he found she 

 made no attempt to get rid of the eggs, but closed her mouth quite tight. In fact, 

 even when left for a short time out of water females do not abandon their brood. 

 For a fortnight this female swam about without taking any food, refusing the most 

 tempting morsels placed before her mouth. During this period, the eggs showed signs 

 of development in the appearance of little black dots— the eyes, — and later the 

 movements of the free embryos could be detected in the " gular sac." One morning, 

 on approaching the glass vessel, Mr. Schoeller was delighted to see a band of about 

 thirty tiny fry swimming about near the mother's head. But to his great surprise, as 

 soon as his presence was noticed, the mother opened her mouth and swallowed the 

 lot ; she then quietly settled among some water weeds, and for some hours no young 

 were to be seen. On returning later in the day, after a prolonged absence, the 

 young were found to be about again, and they were once more similarly absorbed. 

 Mr. Schoeller noticed that the young at once turned towards the gaping mother and 

 made their way into her mouth of their own accord. A wonderful instinct ! 



