Chap. xii. 
FISHES. 
21 
111 colour may be observed, “ whether they lay their 
' e ggs in the water among aquatic plants, or deposit 
“ them in holes, leaving them to come out without 
“ further care, or build shallow nests in the river-mud, 
over which they sit, as our Promotis does. It ought 
“ al so to be observed that these sitters are among the 
brightest species in their respective families ; tor 
‘ instance, Ilygrogonus is bright green, with large 
black ocelli, encircled with the most brilliant red. 
^ hether with all the species of Chromids it is the male 
a ione which sits on the eggs is not known. It is, 
however, manifest that the fact of the eggs being pro- 
moted or unprotected, has bad little or no influence on 
hho differences in colour between the sexes. It is fur- 
ther manifest, in all the cases in which the males take 
delusive charge of the nests and young, that the 
destruction of the brighter-coloured males would be far 
m °re influential on the character of the race, than the 
destruction of the brighter-coloured females; for the 
death of the male during the period of incubation or 
nursing would entail the death of the young, so that 
ihese could not inherit bis peculiarities; yet, in many 
°f these very cases the males are more conspicuously 
c ‘°loured than the females. 
In most of the Lophobranchii (Pipe-fish, Hippo- 
eaurpi, &c.) the males have either marsupial sacks or 
hemispherical depressions on the abdomen, in which 
f le ova laid by the female are batched. The males 
a 80 shew great attachment to their young.® The 
r? Xes do not commonly differ much in colour ; hut Dr. 
-* iinfher believes that the male Hippocampi are rather 
' r igliter than the females. The genus Solenostoma, 
Yarrell, ‘ Hist, of British Fishes,’ vol, ii. 1836, p. 329, 338. 
35 
