go BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 
a bright-red colour, and his eyes of a brilliant 
bluish-green, having a perfectly metallic lustre, 
not unlike the green feathers of a humming-bird ; 
the whole fish seemed somewhat translucent, 
and glowing with an internal brightness. He 
selected a spot nearly in the centre of the trough, 
and busily set to work to make a collection of 
delicate fibrous materials, resting on the ground, 
and matted into an irregular circular mass, some- 
what depressed, and upwards of an inch in diameter, 
the top being covered with similar materials, and 
having in the centre a rather large hole. His 
work was commenced at noonday, and was com- 
pleted and the eggs deposited by half-past six in the 
afternoon. Nothing could exceed the attention 
from this time evinced by the male fish. He kept 
constant watch over the nest, every now and then 
shaking up the materials and dragging out the 
eggs, and then pushing them into their recep- 
tacle again, and tucking them up with his snout, 
arranging the whole to his mind, and again and 
again adjusting it until he was satisfied; after 
which, he hung or hovered over the surface of 
the nest, his head close to the orifice, the body 
inclined upwards at an angle of about forty-five 
degrees, fanning it with the pectoral fins, aided by 
a side motion of the tail. This curious manceuvre 
was apparently for the purpose of ventilating the 
