172 Part III. — Twenty-fourth Annual Report 



and two were females, and the latter were evidently full of eggs, the 

 opportunity was taken to make some detailed observations as to the 

 spawning and the guardianship of the eggs by the male. The two females 

 were first procured, and a few days afterwards the two males, and they 

 were all put together in a tank, in which were also a number of small 

 flounders, a few small plaice, and a lobster which had been there for a 

 long time and dwelt by day in a hole under a stone at the back. 



The concrete tank measures 5| feet long by 4 feet 4 inches wide, and 

 is 3| feet high; it is provided with plate glass in front and back, and 

 during the observations the height of water was maintained at 27^ inches, 

 so that the quantity of water was about 336 gallons (1663 litres). The flow 

 amounted approximately to 80 gallons per hour. Since light is admitted 

 to the back of the tank by a window narrower than the tank, and partly 

 under the level of the ground, the back corners are not so well illuminated. 

 The outflow from the tank was so arranged at first that the water 

 had to pass first through a layer of sand around the lower end of a large 

 fireclay pipe standing erect on the bottom, and high enough to reach above 

 the surface, then up the inside of this pipe till it reached a lateral hole in 

 the iron outflow pipe, which passes through the concrete bottom of the 

 tank and is enclosed by the fireclay pipe. 



On the morning of 24th March it was found that both the female 

 lumpsuckers had spawned. Two large masses of eggs had been deposited 

 during the night, in close contact with one another, in the left-hand 

 corner of the tank, in front, against the glass, and between the side of the 

 tank and a stone, on the top of which a large sea anemone was fixed (see 

 figure on plate XI.). It was thus in a good position for observation. So 

 closely were these masses applied to one another that they appeared at 

 first to form a single mass, distinguishable only by a difference in tint. 

 Later, when the eggs were nearly ready to hatch, they were separated 

 throughout by an interval or gap of about half-an-inch, showing that the 

 masses had in reality not been adherent to one another. It may therefore 

 be surmised that though both females spawned during the night, 

 23rd-24th March, an interval of time elapsed between the layings; and, 

 further, that the adhesiveness of the eggs is soon lost in sea water. 



Both clumps of eggs were pink at first, but one lot was much paler 

 than the other, and thereby readily distinguished. 



After the females had shed their eggs they retired to the shadiest spots 

 at the back of the tank, and passed the time in clinging to or lying on 

 large stones which were there. They were sluggish and quiescent, scarcely 

 moving, and at this time they took no food. Their system was no doubt 

 much upset by the sudden ejection of so large a mass of eggs, which they 

 had carried for some months. 



The two males, on the other hand, occupied very different positions, 

 both as regards their place in the tank and as regards their place in the 

 social or domestic polity of the lumpsuckers present. One of them lay 

 close to the masses of eggs; the other was as far from them and his fellow 

 male as he was able to get, clinging to the wall of the tank in quite the 

 opposite corner, and near the surface of the water, from which he often 

 pushed his snout. 



The former was guarding both masses of eggs. He was lying behind 

 them, with his snout against them, and obviously keenly attentive to his 

 surroundings as well as to the responsible duties of his office. The move- 

 ment of another fish in the water, or of a person standing in front of the 

 glass plate of the tank was sharply watched. If the hand or face or 

 a handkerchief was approached towards the glass, the little lumpsucker 

 came up over the eggs with eagerness and celerity, and remained there in 



