The Love Affairs of Blennies in the Kelp 235 



The fish was seemingly conscious of his gorgeous colors. 

 His long dorsal fin was erect and resplendent with all shades 

 and tints from green to lavender, vibrating and scintillating 

 in the soft light, and the fish was alert, on the qui vive, fully 

 sensible of the importance of the situation and his responsi- 

 bilities. 



In the tank were several small bunches of a deep-maroon 

 seaweed, about four or five inches high, and as I watched 

 the fishes, the female, large and heavy, approached the weed, 

 seemed to examine it, passing around it several times ; then 

 I observed her swim around the weed pressing the ventral 

 surface to it. She had caught the branches together by a 

 pure, white cord, exact in its resemblance to the silk of a 

 silkworm, the cord being very large, almost the size of a 

 small eyeglass cord, or a thick white thread, the white being 

 of a dainty variety. This cord was four or five inches long, 

 of a viscid nature, as it clung tenaciously to all the branches 

 she touched and held them together. I could see myriads of 

 small eggs attached to the cord, which are to be seen in the 

 photograph by the aid of a glass. 



When four or five inches of the white cord were attached, 

 the fish would rest ; the male fish taking her place, hovering 

 over the eggs. Then she would resume the egg-laying 

 process, winding the tenacious silken cord about the weed, 

 tying it together, binding it up, until it assumed a globular, 

 or oval shape, about the size of a hen's egg. She frequently 

 pushed her way through the mass of weed, but more fre- 

 quently wound about it, binding it tighter and closer, until 

 the dark purple weed mass fairly glistened with the mass of 

 glass-like eggs. The entire nest, as shown in the accom- 

 panying photograph I had taken, was formed in about two 

 hours, the fish dropping to the bottom after each effort and 

 lying for ten or twenty minutes during which the mate swam 

 over the eggs, or lay by her side all alert, displaying a 

 viciousness altogether unexpected in so small a creature. 



Recognizing the novelty of the situation, I procured a 



