28 FISH CULTUEE 



again she displays indifference and even re- 

 luctance at accepting his advances. "When at 

 last he has succeeded in coaxing her to the nest, 

 it seems as if the coquette regarded his work of 

 nest-building with scorn or contempt. She is 

 apt to swim languidly several times over the 

 nest and then leave it, to the evident perturba- 

 tion of the male, for he redoubles his antics and 

 contortions, exhibiting as many as a negro in a 

 "cake walk," and guides her back again to the 

 nest. 



This courting sometimes continues for two 

 or three hours before the female consents to 

 remain. Then if he finds she is hard, and the 

 eggs cannot be expressed, he promptly drives 

 her away and goes in search of another female, 

 to whom he pays as assiduous court as he did 

 to the first. Should she prove ripe, the func- 

 tion of spawning is begun. If much delay oc- 

 curs in meeting a ripe female, he does not 

 accept the fact philosophically, but "runs 

 amuck." He darts hither and thither over the 

 pond, and at the first nest in which he discovers 

 a ripe female, there ensues at once a free fight. 

 The raging bachelor dashes into the peaceful 



