DISCOBOLI. 261 



abundant about the 60th parallel, being very plentiful among the Orkney islands, 

 and on the Greenland coast. Dr. Mitchill describes the lump of the New York 

 coast as a distinct species, under the name of Cyclopterus cceruleus, but his figure 

 is a tolerable representation of the Common lump, and no part of his description 

 disagrees with this species, — the colours of his specimen being very similar to those 

 of the " pavonian sucker " of Beaumaris Bay, described by the Reverend Hugh 

 Davies, which differs from the common state of the lump merely in the brilliancy 

 of its tints. Indeed this fish varies greatly in hue according to its age and sex, the 

 male being generally more coloured. Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton Smith ob- 

 tained a lump resembling Mitchill's, in the Bale des Chaleurs of the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence. Fabricius describes the lump as approaching the rocky bays on the 

 Greenland coast, in the months of April and May, for the purpose of spawning. 

 The female precedes and deposits her roe among the larger algse, and in fissures 

 of the rocks ; the male shortly follows and fructifies the eggs, adhering so closely to 

 the mass of roe, that the impression is left upon the hollow surface of the shield 

 formed by the ventrals ; after which he keeps watch over the sacred deposit, and 

 guards it from every foe with the utmost courage. If driven from the spot by man, 

 he does not go far, but is continually looking back, and in a short time returns. 

 Even the well-armed wolf-fish hazards his life if he approaches the lump's nest ; 

 for this creature, notwithstanding the smallness of its teeth, is (as we have already 

 mentioned, p. 95, on the authority of Fabricius) capable of attaching itself to its 

 adversary's neck, and inflicting thereon a mortal wound. Lacepede denies the 

 truth of the whole of this story, attributing its origin to the vivid imagination of 

 some one who having occasionally seen two of these fish sticking to the same 

 stone in the vicinity of a deposit of spawn, inferred that the cold and sluggish lump 

 is animated by ardent feelings of constant love, conjugal tenderness and fidelity, 

 and a devoted attachment to its offspring. But, notwithstanding the eloquence 

 which this writer has employed to discredit the vulgar opinion of the lump's care 

 for its progeny, it is not perhaps altogether devoid of truth, and it can be supported, 

 if not by direct testimony, at least by analogous facts. The gouramy (osphromenua 

 olfax), one of the anabasidece, which attains the size of a turbot, is said to dig a pit 

 in the sand wherein it deposits its roe : we have quoted, in page 96, Olivi's account 

 of the male Venetian goby building a nuptial chamber for the reception of the 

 spawn which he impregnates, as it is deposited there by various females that come 

 in succession into his harem : the hassars of Essequibo, belonging to the genera 

 Doras and Callichthys of the siluroid family, not only construct a nest of leaves or 

 grass to contain their roe, but the male and female (for they pair) watch and de- 



