198 Fish Stories 



gray or olive with shining sides, but a few are striped with 

 red and blue, and some have blue or dark red mottling. For 

 the most part, they live in the surf along sandy shores. One 

 species goes into deep water, and one is found in fresh- 

 water streams around San Francisco Bay. 



The flesh of all is pale, rather watery, and without much 

 flavor. The one most remarkable trait is shared by all. 

 They hatch the eggs in the body and the young are brought 

 forth alive. When born, they are about two inches long, 

 as thin as wafers, with the fins very high like sails. There 

 are a dozen or more born at a time — tail first — and they 

 are born in quiet waters just outside the surf in the spring. 



The commonest large species was named by Professor 

 Agassiz for Dr. A. C. Jackson, who first discovered this 

 extraordinary habit. One of the smaller species swarms 

 about every wharf and is caught by every boy who drops a 

 hook. And the others are all familiar to the idlers along 

 shore who fish from every wharf. 



There are other fishes that bring forth their young alive. 

 More than half the species of shark hatch the eggs within 

 the body, and the young when born are quite able to take 

 care of themselves. The great body of the red and green 

 fishes known on the Pacific Coast as rock fish or rock cod 

 hatch the young within the body, but these are born in multi- 

 tudes when less than a third of an inch long. 



Of the multitude of species in the tribe of top minnows, 

 about half are viviparous, the body of the little mother fish 

 being crowded with the relatively large young. These fishes 

 are especially numerous in streams and estuaries of the 

 warmer parts of America. One of them is less than an inch 

 long when full grown, and long held the record as the small- 

 est known vertebrate. 



These killifishes, or top minnows, are now attracting in- 

 terest from their fondness for mosquito larvas. The gov- 

 ernment of Hawaii has lately brought three species of them 

 from Galveston to Honolulu, where they are still engaged 



