••lO** 
I broke off working on the small wire oage we had been completing and w'^ont 
to investigate. And we located the fish with no trouble. It appeared to bo 
a maxilosuSf and his mouth was crammed solidly with eggs, slightly bluish 
in color, and peppered all over with tiny iridescent blue spots. When I 
began moving my camera on tripod closer the fish slowly backed dov/n into 
his hole and a moment later reappeared with no eggs. Apparently he had 
stashed them in a safe place in order to give me and my operations his un- 
divided attention. After I was set up and had made no move to give him 
trouble he slid out of sight and reappeared once more w ith the ball of eggs. 
The mass was very large, and he never at any time shut his mouth completely 
over it« From time to time it would appear that he was about to disgorge 
it, but after popping it half out of his mouth in a jerky motion of his jaws 
he would settle calmly down again to his routine of staring about at the 
passing scene. At one time I put my finger within a half-inch of his nose. 
His only reaction was gradually to back dov/n into his den. 
After making some photographs I asked Tom to sprinkle a few shreds 
of minnow in the water where the fish could see them. 1/lhen he saw the 
particles of food floating down he got a gleam in his eyes and backed out 
of sight into his burrow. In a moment he was back eggless and ready for 
business. Ho was not at all afraid, and dashed almost into my camera lens 
after bits of minnow. When he had satisfied himself that there was no more 
food in the area he disappeared and in a moment or two reappeared with his 
egg cargo. We repeated this piece of business several times to make sure 
