NEST-BUILDING FISHES. 
OT alone in color do fishes resemble birds. In the 
home-life and love of offspring a close resemblance 
obtains. Many are nest-builders, erecting structures quite 
as complicated as those of some birds, and hardly less elab- 
orate in design and finish. 
Floating along some woodland stream, or strolling along 
its grass-fringed margin, we have watched the domestic life 
of the Sun-fish, the Eupomotis vulgaris of writers, that mot- 
tled, bespangled beauty that seems always on hand to be 
caught by the angler in default of more noble game. 
Where delicate grasses grow, and floating lily-pads cast 
their shadows, there among the winding stems the Sun-fish 
builds its home. Moving in pairs in and out among the 
lilies near the shore, as if jointly selecting a site for a nursery, 
they may be seen. The spot is generally a gravelly one, and, 
once determined upon, no time is lost in pushing the work 
to a speedy conclusion. For several inches around the 
space is cleared of stems or roots, and these are carefully 
carried away. The smaller roots are swept aside by well- 
directed blows of their tails, or by mimic whirlpools which 
the fishes, standing over the nest, create by their fins. The 
stones are next taken up, the smaller ones in their mouths, 
the larger being pushed out bodily, or fanned away by the 
sweeping process, until an oval depression, with a sandy 
bottom, finally appears. About the sides the stems of 
aquatic verdure, which seem to have been purposely left, 
may be seen standing, and these now naturally fall over, 
oftentimes constituting the nest a perfect bower, with walls 
