Fishes. 4949 



front of a fragment of limestone which rose behind the plants and acted as a pro- 

 tecting background to the position. The nest being all prepared, exactly as before 

 described, although by another individual, the eggs were deposited, I presume, during 

 the night of May 8th : this was judged of, not from observance of the act of spawning, 

 but from the altered appearance of the female fish evidencing that she had shed her 

 spawn, from the immediate change made by the male fish in the arrangement of the 

 materials forming the nest, and, likewise, the violent repulsion of the female from the 

 neighbourhood of its position, to which previously he had been as assiduous in driving 

 her. From this period the nest was opened more to the action of the water, and the 

 vibratory motion of the body of the male fish, while hovering over its surface, caused, 

 as before described, a current of water to be propelled across the surface of the ova : 

 this action was repeated almost continuously. The apparent luminosity of the body, 

 if I may so term it, also decreased, and in this state all continued without change until 

 the 18th of May, making a period of ten days. After this date the whole nest was 

 destroyed, and the materials of which it had been composed thrown aside, with the 

 exception of a few wiry stems of a decayed water-moss, and a space cleared around the 

 spot of about 3 inches in diameter; the mud or sand at the bottom being carefully 

 removed with its mouth and carried in this manner to some distance, leaving the 

 rounded stones of the gravel clean and free from any obstruction around them. 

 Watching carefully for a short time, to understand what all this busy alteration indi- 

 cated, I at last had the pleasure of observing, by the aid of a long-focused pocket-lens, 

 some of the young fry — of course most minute creatures — fluttering upwards here and 

 there, by a movement half swimming, half leaping, and then falling rapidly again 

 upon or between the clean pebbles of the shingle bottom. This arose from their 

 having the remainder of the yelk still attached to their body, which, acting as a 

 weight, caused them to sink the moment the swimming effort had ceased. Around all 

 this space above mentioned, and across it in every direction, the male fish, as the 

 guardian, continually moved. And now his labours became still more arduous than 

 they had been before, and his vigilance was taxed to the utmost extreme, for the other 

 fish, three of them some twenty times larger than himself, as soon as they perceived 

 that the young fry were in motion, used their utmost endeavours, continuously, to 

 pounce upon the nest and snap them up. The courage of this little creature was 

 certainly now put to its severest test, but, nothing daunted, he drove them all off, 

 seizing their fins, and striking with all his strength at their heads and at their eyes 

 most furiously. All the assistance that could possibly be afforded him was of course 

 rendered, short of actual interference, by keeping them pretty well fed, in order to 

 allay, if possible, their voracity. Another circumstance, which appeared to add greatly 

 to the excitement that he was constantly subjected to, arose from the second female 

 fish, being in spawn, endeavouring most pertinaciously to deposit her ova in the same 

 locality, and hence rushing frequently down towards the spot; but the male fish was 

 ever on the alert, and although he did not strike at her in the furious way he attacked 

 the larger ones, yet, he kept continually under her, with the formidable back spines all 

 raised erect, so that it was impossible for her to effect her apparent object. The care 

 of the young brood, while encumbered with the yelk, was very extraordinary, and as 

 this was gradually absorbed and they gained strength, their attempts to swim carried 

 them to a great distance from the parent fish ; his vigilance, however, seemed every- 

 where, and if they rose by the action of their fins above a certain height from 

 the shingle bottom, or flitted beyond a certain distance from the nest, they were 



