Nest-Building Fishes. 163 
BLACK-NOSED DACE. 
Constructing Their Nest of Pebbles. 
This fish attains a length of about fifteen inches. The finest 
nests are on the shores of Westminster Island, but they are 
common on nearly every island that has a sandy, gravelly 
shore among the many that make up the Thousand Islands. 
The nest is a pile of stones, sometimes measuring ten feet 
across at the base, four feet in height, and containing a good- 
sized cart-load of stones, weighing in all perhaps a ton. 
Stones from small pebbles to some four inches in length 
were used, and as some of the nests are placed at consider- 
able distances from the gravel-beds, and each stone repre- 
sented a journey, the amount of labor performed, when 
it is considered that tens of thousands of stones must have 
been used in the building, certainly was incredible. Each 
stone is brought in the mouth of the Chub and dropped 
over the piles, one or more fishes working at the same 
heap. Some plan is evidently followed in the work, 
the first deposit of stones being small, and dropped so as to 
