1094 Marvels of the Universe 
BUTTER-FISH 
The male of the Butter-fish, also known as the Gunnel, when the eggs have been deposited, carefully gathers them into a 
heap, and coils his body around them until they hatch. 
lung. This change in function has come about to enable the fish to live long out of the water, which 
it is often called upon to do. 
In the Butter-fish of our coasts the care of the family is similarly thrust upon the male. In this 
species, however, no nest is made. As soon as the eggs are laid, the male gathers them into a heap 
and coiling his body around them, patiently awaits the time when they shall hatch. In this he 
resembles that strange and little-known member of the frog-tribe, the ichthyophis, and the python 
among the snakes. But here the female plays the réle of incubator. There is, however, this differ- 
ence between them. In the ichthyophis there is no rise in temperature of the body embracing the 
eggs, while in the case of the python a marked rise has been observed. More rarely, as in the case 
of the sea-snakes, the mother coils her body round her young ones till long after hatching ; probably 
she guards her eggs in a similar fashion, but of this we have no certain knowledge. 
The development of the parental instinct among the fishes is by no means easy to understand, 
especially since this instinct occurs in such a sporadic fashion, and is, having regard to the total 
number of species, so rarely met with. What is true, however, in the case of the fishes is true also 
of the frog-tribe. In the majority of cases the eggs are just shed into the water and left to their 
fate. But, as these pages have already shown, there are a number of singular instances when the 
young are most jealously guarded. One could understand like habits in nearly-related species, but 
precisely similar behaviour in animals often not even remotely related demands more of our powers 
of interpretation than we can yet respond to. 
THE BEARDED LIZARD 
BY R. LYDEKKER. 
REFERENCE has been made in a previous article to the apparently threatening gestures assumed, 
under the influence of irritation by the Australian Frilled Lizard ; the particular structure in that 
instance being the expansible frill or collar from which the species takes its name. There is, how- 
ever, another Australian lizard, generally known in this country as the Bearded Lizard, but in its 
native land as the Jew Lizard, which is also in the habit of assuming what appears to be an attitude 
