82 ACANTHOPTERYGII. — TRIGLAD^. 
Sea-adder, is endowed with a similar instinct. 1' 
The author of a communication to the Royal i . 
Institution of Cornwall, republished in the i j 
Zoologist,” thus records his observations : — j 
During the summers of 1842, and 1843, while i j 
searching for the naked mollusks of the county, i 
I occasionally discovered portions of sea-weed 1 
and the common coralline hanging from the rocks 
in pear-shaped masses, variously intermingled j 
with each other. On one occasion, having ob- i 
served that the mass was very curiously bound - 
together by a slender silken-looking thread, it i 
was torn open, and the centre was found to be 
occupied by a mass of transparent amber-coloured 
ova, each being about the tenth of an inch in 
diameter. Though examined on the spot with a 
lens, nothing could be discovered to indicate 
their character. They were, however, kept in a 
basin, and daily supplied with sea-water, and 
eventually proved to be the young of some fish. 
The nest varies a great deal in size, but rarely i 
exceeds six inches in length, or four inches in 
breadth. It is pear-shaped, and composed of sea- 
weed or the common coralline, as they hang 
suspended from the rock. They are brought i 
together, without being detached from their i 
places of growth, by a delicate, opaque, white 
thread. This thread is highly elastic, and very 
much resembles silk, both in appearance and 
texture; this is brought round the plants, and 
tightly binds them together, plant after plant, till 
the ova, which are deposited early, are complete- • 
ly hidden from view. This silk-like thread is ‘ 
passed in all directions through and around the 
mass, in a very complicated manner. At first, 
