182 THE SUCKER FAMILY. 



In the majority of instances the exposed surface of the 

 masses of eggs presents peculiar and smoothly rounded depres- 

 sions as if some of the eggs had been scooped out by a 

 predatory fish or mollusk. Such depressions are bowl-shaped, 

 that is, wider at the top or surface, and gently narrowing to the 

 bottom. An attentive examination, however, shows no mark 

 of injury, such as would be caused by the teeth of a fish 

 or by the rasping ' tongue ' of a shell-fish. The eggs lie evenly 

 together and their capsules are uninjured. In all probability, 

 therefore, the depressions are due to pressure applied by a 

 blunt surface immediately after deposition ; when the mass is 

 soft, it may be by the snout or other part of the male as he 

 fertilises them. 



The eggs are chiefly to be found from low-water mark to 

 half-tide mark, often deposited in cornei's or in holes in rocks. 

 They generally are exposed to the wash of the sea, at St Andrews 

 for instance, chiefly facing the east. In this position they are 

 eagerly eaten by rooks, starlings, and rats. The food-fishes and 

 others are also extremely partial to them'. Thus, at the end of 

 April, it occasionally happens that codling caught off the rocks 

 have their stomachs distended with the eggs of the lump- 

 sucker. Even such small fishes as Yarrell's blennies take the 

 same food. 



The care which certain male bony fishes take of the eggs is 

 well known, while Dr Gtinther mentions only two cases in which 

 females do so. In this country the males of the river bull-head, 

 the lump-sucker, and the marine and fresh-water sticklebacks 

 are familiar instances. 



Most authors who have treated of Gyclopterus have observed 

 this feature in the male; indeed, it is sufiicient, under ordinary 

 circumstances, to try to push him off guard with a stick to 

 bring out the feature clearly. Various interpretations, however, 

 have been placed on the habit, some supposing that the mere 

 fact of the male being in the neighbourhood at deposition 

 sufficed to account for its subsequent appearance near the eggs; 

 while others, after Fabricius, bestowed considerable attention 

 on the description of the instinct. In regard to the remarks 



1 W. C. M. 6(/i S. F. B. Report, p. 272. 



