156 
Commission, in Washington. At spawning 
time eggs were laid and oneofthe parents kept 
watch over them, not permitting the other to 
come near. The young were duly hatched and 
thrived, being cared for in this way until they 
were big enough to look out for themselves. 
In their native ponds and brooks you will find 
large broods of young catfish as big as three- 
fourths of an inch in length remaining together 
in schools, each school accompanied by the 
male. Sometimes the latter will swim slowly 
along in the centre of the young ones and at 
other times alongside. 
In laying their eggs, the parent catfishes se- 
lect a spot where the water is quiet, if possible 
protected by aquatic plants, and there they 
make a nest, perhaps eight inches by six, in- 
cluding the spawn. 
The nest has a soft outer envelope, and over 
it the male hovers, forcing fresh water through 
the mass by ‘rapid vibrations of his fins, until 
after about a week they are hatched. 
Sometimes the male catfish takes care of its 
young in astill more peculiar manner. There 
is a kind found in the sea, the eggs laid by 
which are as large as a small bullet. These 
eggs are found in the mouths of the male, which 
do this to protect them. 
After the eggs are laid, the parent catfish 
takes them into his mouth and keeps them 
there until they are all hatched, when they go 
out and take care of themselves. 
But this method is not confined to the cat- 
fishes. There are found in Africa and South 
Africa a species which resemble the sunfish of 
our own streams. These “cichlids,” as they 
are called, are also plentiful in Texas and Pal- 
estine. They are often found with their cheeks 
fairly bulging with young. 
In the Sea of Galilee the cichlids are so num- 
erous that the miraculous catch of the time 
when St. Peter fished there might be repeated 
any day, it being the manner of these fishes to 
move about on the top of the water in solid 
masses, Covering many square yards and mak- 
ing a noise like that of rain pouring. 
THE KIBI—MAORI SKULLS. 
During a visit to New Zealand Dr. Fristedi, 
says Galignani’s Messinger, succeeded in ob« 
NATURE'S REALM. 
taining a specimen of the quaint and almost 
extinct kibi bird. This bird is somewhat like 
an ostrich, but only the size of a crow; it has 
no wings at all, and is covered with fur-like, 
short striped feathers. Another peculiarity 
about the kibi is the fact that its egg is larger 
than one-third of its body. He also succeeded 
in bringing home some Maori skulls, which 
are difficult to obtain on account of the manner 
in which the natives bury their dead. When 
the bodies have been so long in the ground 
that all the flesh has fallen from the skeleton, 
they unearth them and carry them into the in- 
terior of the forests, where they are deposited 
in natural caves, which are very difficult to 
find. Anybody discovered with one is sure to 
be killed. 
A LARGE SUNFISH. 
An immense sunfish was recently captured 
near St. Augustine, Florida, which I had the 
pleasure of examining. It was estimated as 
weighing 600 lbs., but was probably a hundred 
pounds lighter. The following dimensions will 
give an idea of its great size: Extreme length, 
8 feet and 2 inches ; depth from tip of dorsal 
fin to tip of anal, g feet 9 inches ; the dorsal fin 
measured 40 inchesin length. The mouth was 
very small and provided with two teeth* on 
each of the jaws in front, somewhat resembling 
the teeth of the rodent mammals. The skin 
was thick, rough, leathern and elastic, without 
bony plates and resembled the skin of some 
salt water dog fishes. Dorsal fin beginning not 
far back of pectorals is.short and high. No 
large spines on the body. 
This strange fish is the sunfish, headfish or 
mola (Mola rutunda, Cuv.), and belongs to 
the family Orthagoriscide. It was included 
formerly in the family Diodontide, meaning 
two-toothed, from the arrangement of the teeth. 
The word sola means millstone, and is given 
from the shape of the fish. The body is much 
compressed laterally ; giving it greatly the ap- 
pearance of our common sunny, Lepomus ot 
the north. The Diodon, porcupine fishes, are 
not far removed from this fish, although differ- 

* Or, perhaps more properly, one tooth divides apparently 
at the median line by a suture. 
