916 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vor. XXXV. 
approaching a common point. I awaited with interest their 
movements and was surprised to see them unite to form a 
single school, which, however, remained intact but a short time. 
The larvae soon separated into three groups, each of which 
pursued a different course. This procedure was repeatedly 
. witnessed, sometimes the union of small groups to form a large 
one, again the subdivision of a large one. The fact that the 
larvae in some of the broods vary widely in size is thus easily 
explained. .A slight disturbance of the water is sufficient to 
disperse them, after which they again join in a closely aggre- 
gated group. A shadow cast upon the water and quickly 
removed sends them scurrying here and there. I was quite 
surprised to discover that a low guttural sound caused them 
to disperse, while a shrill whistle caused no commotion. 
During the summer of 1900 I was able to make some obser- 
vations on the behavior of the fish preceding the spawning. 
While observing the habits of the black bass in the artificial 
ponds of Oakwoods Cemetery, Chicago, I saw a number of 
large bullheads swimming about singly and close to the shore. 
I thought at first that they, like many of the other fishes in 
the lagoons, were exceedingly tame and had sought the shallow 
water for the purpose of obtaining food. After several inef- 
fectual attempts to induce them to take worms, bits of meat, 
bread crumbs, etc., I concluded that they were not feeding, 
and since from previous observations I knew this to be their 
spawning time I surmised that they might be searching the 
shore to locate suitable nesting places. They would frequently 
swim so far into the shallow water that the dorsal fin an 
upper portion of the body were above the surface of the water. 
Here they would wriggle about, and if an indentation or slight 
excavation were found they would pass in, move rapidly about, 
swim out and on, only to repeat the procedure when another 
suitable locality was found. The fishes were always single ; 
in no case were two observed even in close proximity.” 
On May 15 and 18 increasing numbers of these wanderers 
were observed. On May 20 I was gratified to witness what 
seemed to me a natural sequence. A cloud of muddy water 
attracted my attention, and walking cautiously to within a few 
