l62 



Instincts, Habits, and Adaptations 



discolored, worn, and distorted. The male is humpbacked, with 

 sunken scales, and greatly enlarged, hooked, bent, or twisted 

 jaws, with enlarged dog-hke teeth. On reaching the spawning 

 beds, which may be a thousand miles from the sea in the 

 Columbia, over two thousand in the Yukon, the female de- 

 posits her eggs in the gravel of some shallow' brook. The 

 male covers them and scrapes the gravel over them. Then both 

 male and female drift tail foremost helplessly down the stream ; 

 none, so far as certainly known, ever survive the reproductible 

 act. The same habits are found in the five other species of 

 salmon in the Pacific, but in most cases the individuals do not 

 start so early nor run so far. The blue-back salmon or redfish, 

 however, does not fall far short in these regards. The salmon 

 of the Atlantic has a similar habit, but the distance traveled is 

 ever^'^vhere much less, and most of the hook-jawed males drop 

 down to the sea and survive to repeat the acts of reproduction. 



Catadroiiioiis fishes, as the true eel (AugiiiUa), reverse this 

 order, feeding in the rivers and brackish estuaries, apparently 

 finding their usual spawning-ground in the sea. 



Pugnacity of Fishes. — Some fishes are A'ery pugnacious, al- 

 ways ready for a quarrel with their own kind. The stickle- 

 backs show this disposition, especially the males. In Hawaii the 

 natives take advantage of this trait to catch the Uu {Myripristis 



Fig. 124. — Sqwaw-fish, Plijchocheilus orcgonensis (Richardson). Columbia River. 



munijan), a bright crimson-colored fish found in those waters. 

 The species Uves in crevices m lava rocks. Catching a live one, 

 the fishermen suspend it by a string in front of the rocks. It 

 remains there with spread fins and flashing scales, and the others 

 come out to fight it, when all are drawn to the surface bv a 



