GENERAL REMARKS ON THE EGGS OF MARINE FISHES. 13 



Turner have shown, the large eggs are carried without injury 

 by the male in his mouth and gill-chamber until hatched, the 

 small and almost granular palatine teeth making this possible. 

 He thus acts the part of a dry nurse, as also does the male 

 pipe-fish and the sea-horse, the eggs being borne by the male 

 in a pouch on the under surface, the young fishes after hatch- 

 ing even returning when alarmed to the pouch for safety. 

 In another Siluroid (Aspredo) from Guiana the remarkable 

 exception occurs of a female fish interesting herself in the 

 care of the young. At the breeding season the skin on the 

 under surface becomes soft and spongy, and the eggs, which 

 are deposited on the ground, adhere by simple pressure of 

 the body over them, somewhat after the manner observed 

 in the Surinam toad. An Indian Lophobranch (Solenostoma) 

 shares the distinction just mentioned, in which the pelvic 

 (ventral) fins — free in the males — coalesce to form, with the 

 integuments, a pouch for the reception and hatching of the 

 eggs. These and other examples, such as the stickleback and the 

 viviparous blenny, form a series of types in which the amount 

 of protection given to the future generation bj^ the parent 

 approaches that shown in the viviparous cartilaginous fishes. 

 Viviparous Fishes. Too little is known of the life-histories 

 of the viviparous fishes to enable us to generalise with safety, 

 but this much is evident that the young fishes on extrusion 

 are in some cases of a very large size proportionally, as in the 

 viviparous blenny, where they measure 2 inches, but they are 

 comparatively few in number. This widely distributed species, 

 however, has held its own in the struggle for existence, but it 

 nowhere occurs in profusion. The same remarks apply to 

 the viviparous " Norway haddock " of our northern waters. 

 Nowhere are these viviparous fishes so abundant as on the 

 western coast of America, where Prof Carl Eigenmann, who 

 has recently made a careful study of their developments found 

 them forming no less than 30 per cent, of the bony fishes at 

 San Diego. They belong to two families (Embiotocidae and 

 Scorpcenidae), the former including fishes frequenting the in- 



1 " On the Viviparous Fishes of the Pacific Coast of North America," Bull, 

 U. S. F, C. 1892. 



