SPINO’tTS FISHES. 
J 55 
prsgnation is performed without "the body of the female, 
by the male ejecting the fmilt, and mingling it with her 
ova. Something, however, like pairing and copulation, 
bas been obfervcd among the filh kept in ponds. At a 
h certain period, the fexes are feen ftruggling together 
among the grafs, at the brink of the water. It is then 
that the fcales of fome grow rough, and lofe their Iuf. 
tre ; that others grow thin, lofe their appetite, and be- 
Co ®e flabby. Should their copulation be eltablilhed by 
farther obfervation, their manner of generation would 
he more analogous to that of the reft of the animal king- 
dom. 
It is never yet afcertained, whether all the fillies of 
this order, when they firft attain to animation, and burft 
fr °m the egg, leave it perfeft animals, or in a tadpole 
ftate, as is the cafe with the frogs, and many of the 
hzards. The young frog is firft ulliered into life, with 
an enormous head, and flender tail ; but the tail fooii 
a fter drops off, the head diminilhes, the legs appear, 
a nd the tadpole is metamorphofed into the quadruped, 
"'hen it changes its element, as well as its form. A 
species of the lizard alio, which is excluded from the 
without legs, acquires them by degrees, and af- 
tet lome time leaves the ferpentine ftiape. Some fillies, 
H ls Probable, in like manner fuffera change, though too 
^'perceptible to attract the notice of the obferver. In 
? Pport of this idea, it is well known, that during the 
*°°nth of July, there appear in the Thames innumerable 
Ihoals " - 
«U 
°f ftnall filh, called white bait, that are univerially 
■yj We< ^ he the young of fome fpecies abounding there, 
to ^ a%e 110 roe ’ a c ' rcum hance which proves them 
e ^ 0un S : they refemble no other filh exactly ; from 
U 3 which 
