36 ME. P. DAT ON THE 



pterus lumpus, is, according to Yarrell and others, a fish that 

 shows attachment for its eggs. At the spawning-time the female 

 precedes and deposits her ova among the larger algae and in fis- 

 sures of the rocks ; the male shortly follows and fructifies the 

 eggs, adhering so closely to the mass of roe that the impression is 

 left upon the hollow surface of the shield formed by the ventrals, 

 after which he keeps watch over the deposited ova and guards them 

 from every foe w T ith the utmost courage. If driven from the spot 

 by man he does not go far, but is continually looking back, and in 

 a short time returns. Dr. Johnston observes that the fishermen 

 in Berwickshire believe that the male covers the spawn and 

 remains covering or near it until the ova are hatched, and that 

 the young soon after birth fix themselves to the sides and on to 

 the back of their male parent, who sails, thus loaded, to deeper 

 and more safe retreats. 



Agassiz remarks* that while examining the marine products of 

 the Sargasso Sea, Mr. Mansfield picked up and brought to him a 

 round mass of sargassum, about the size of the two fists, rolled up 

 together. The whole consisted, to all appearance, of nothing but 

 gulf- weed, the branches and leaves of which were, however, evi- 

 dently knit together, and not merely balled into a roundish mass. 

 The elastic threads which held the gulf- weed together were beaded 

 at intervals, sometimes two or three beads being close together, 

 or a branch of them hanging from the cluster of threads. This 

 nest was full of eggs scattered throughout the mass and not 

 placed together in a cavity. It was evidently the work of the 

 Chironectes. This rocking fish-cradle is carried along as an un- 

 dying arbour, affording at the same time protection and after- 

 wards food for its living freight. It is suggested that they must 

 have used their peculiar pectoral fins when constructing this 

 elaborate nest. 



The well-known Tinker or ten-spined Stickleback, Gasterosteus 

 pungitius, is one of our indigenous fish which constructs a nest. 

 On May 1st, 1864, a malef was placed in a well-established aqua- 

 rium of moderate size, and in which, after three days, two ripe 

 females were added. Their presence at once roused him into 

 activity, and he soon began to build a nest of bits of dirt and dead 

 fibre and of growing confervoid filaments ,upon a jutting point of 



* Sillinian's American Journal, Feb. 1872. 



t Eansom, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1865, xsi. p. 449. 



