INSTINCTS AND EMOTIONS IN FISH. 35 



going in single file above them. The parents are very fierce at 

 this period, and defend their offspring with great courage*. I 

 have likewise personally witnessed in Canara the young of the 

 orange Walking-fish, 0. aurcmtiacus, swimming about with their 

 parents, by whom they are protected, according to native fisher- 

 men, until they are able to shift for themselves, when they are 

 driven away by their progenitors. The fishes enumerated as 

 monogamous, viz. Osphromenus, Macropodus, and Ophiocephalus, 

 are all amphibious Acanthopterygians and inhabitants of Asia. I 

 will now pass on to examples taken from other localities. 



Pennantf remarks that the river Bullhead (Coitus gobio) de- 

 posits its spawn in a hole it forms in the gravel, and quits it with 

 great reluctance. "We are told of a Eussian fish, BitshkiJ, that 

 it is one of the most remarkable of those in the Black Sea, and 

 always occasions fever in whoever eat it, while it builds for its 

 young a nest like a bird. The male and female unite their cares 

 in its construction, gathering seeds and soft seaweeds, and de- 

 positing them in small holes on the shore. In this the female 

 not only lays her eggs, but watches them carefully like a hen ; and 

 when the little ones are hatched, they remain near the mother till 

 they are sufficiently grown to venture forth alone into the world 

 of waters. 



In South America two species of monogamous fish, termed 

 " Hassar " and also " Hardback," of the genus Callichthys^h^YQ 

 been observed to construct nests — the flat-headed form (G. asper) 

 of leaves, and the round-headed kind (C. punctatus) of grass ; in 

 these they deposit their eggs, which they carefully cover, and both 

 sexes watch and defend them till the young come forth. The late 

 Dr. Jerdon§ remarked of the beautiful little JEtroplus maculatus, 

 an inhabitant of the streams of Southern India and Ceylon, that 

 the eggs, which were not very numerous, were deposited in the 

 mud at the bottom of a stream ; and when hatched, both parents 

 guarded their young for many days, vigorously attacking any large 

 fish that passed near them. It is evident, in this case, that they 

 must have remained in the vicinity of their eggs and watched over 

 them until the young came forth. The Lump-sucker, Cyclo- 



* Col. Puckle, Report on the Fishes of Bangalor. 

 t Brit. Zool. iii. 1776, p. 216 

 \ Koht's ' Russia.' 

 § Madras Journ. Lit. and Sc. 1849, p. 143. 



