160 FISH AS FATHERS, 



the kangaroo it is the mother who owns the pouch and 

 takes care of the young, in the pipe-fish it is the father, 

 on the contrary, who thus specially provides for the 

 safety of his defenceless offspring. And what is odder 

 still, this topsy-turvy arrangement (as it seems to us) is 

 the common rule throughout the class of fishes. For the 

 most part it must be candidly admitted by their warmest 

 admirer, fish make very bad parents indeed. They lay 

 their eggs anywhere on a suitable spot, and as soon as 

 they have once deposited them, like the ostrich in Job, 

 they go on their way rejoicing, and never bestow another 

 passing thought upon their deserted progeny. But if 

 ever a fish does take any pains in the education and 

 social upbringing of its young, you're pretty sure to find 

 on enquiry it's the father not as one would naturally 

 expect, the mother who devotes his time and attention 

 to the congenial task of hatching or feeding them. It is 

 he who builds the nest, and sits upon the eggs, and 

 nurses the young, and imparts moral instruction (with a 

 snap of his jaw or a swish of his tail) to the bold, the 

 truant, the cheeky, or the imprudent ; while his unnatu- 

 ral spouse, well satisfied with her own part in having 

 merely brought the helpless eggs into this world of sorrow, 

 goes off on her own account in the giddy whirl of society, 

 forgetful of the sacred claims of her wriggling offspring 

 upon a mother's heart. 



In the pipe-fish family, too, the ardent evolutionist can 

 trace a whole series of instructive and illustrative grada- 

 tions in the development of this instinct and the 

 corresponding pouch-like structure among the male fish. 

 With the least highly-evolved types, like the long-nosed 



