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THE AIR BREATHING 



mass, which, on being closely examined, will be found to consist 

 of other eggs of very minute size, the difference in size between 

 those which are ready for emission, and the others which are im- 

 mature, being very remarkable. The strange fact, however, is 

 that the large eggs, on being emitted, are immediately taken up, 

 either by the fish that has laid them, or by another of the same 

 species, and, not swallowed, but kept in the mouth, until they are 

 hatched, and the fry are able to take care of themselves, a period 

 of some weeks, during which it is impossible that the fish, which 

 is swimming about with so extraordinary a mouthful, can swallow 

 any food, except such small nutritious particles as may be floating 

 about in the water. When these fish first make their appearance 

 at Caltura, in the beginning of the season, they are said to be so 

 fat, that the curry made with them resembles that made with pork; 

 but after swimming about for a few days, with their mouths full 

 of eggs, they become dry and insipid. In bottle No. 2, you will 

 see thirteen eggs, which I shook out with my own hands from the 

 mouth of a fish of eight or nine inches long, each egg being about 

 the size of a small grape. Preserved in that manner, viz., in Gly- 

 cerine, the eggs retain their natural colour and transparency, where- 

 as in spirit they soon become opaque. In the same bottle are some 

 other eggs, which were obtained by pressure, and which present 

 the same remarkable difference in size as those in No. 1. You will 

 perceive that these latter are perfectly transparent, the smaller ones 

 being scarcely visible, whereas those which were shaken out of the 

 mouth of the fish contain a perfectly formed embryo, and have a 

 system of blood-vessels spreading over their surface on one side. 

 In bottle No, 3, you will see one of the eggs in a more advanced 

 stage of development. Both the head and tail of the embryo have 

 escaped from the egg, which, very little diminished in size, remains 

 appended to the middle of the fish, giving it a very distorted appear- 

 nace." 



" This adherence of the egg to the young fish, after it . has been 

 hatched, is not peculiar to this species. The same thing occurs in 

 tlw case of the Salmon fry, which are being produced, under the 



