. The study of animal life. Zoology. The Study of Animal Life themselves, his cares are increased tenfold. It is hard to keep the youngsters in the cradle. " No sooner has he brought one bold truant back, than two others are out, and so it goes on the whole day ; We are not clever enough to understand why the males among many fishes are so much more careful than the females. For the stickleback is not alone in his excellent behaviour. The male Chinese macropod {Polyacanthus) makes a frothy nest of air and mucus, in which he places his mate's eggs. He, too, watches jealously over
. The study of animal life. Zoology. The Study of Animal Life themselves, his cares are increased tenfold. It is hard to keep the youngsters in the cradle. " No sooner has he brought one bold truant back, than two others are out, and so it goes on the whole day ; We are not clever enough to understand why the males among many fishes are so much more careful than the females. For the stickleback is not alone in his excellent behaviour. The male Chinese macropod {Polyacanthus) makes a frothy nest of air and mucus, in which he places his mate's eggs. He, too, watches jealously over the brood, and "has his hands—or rather his mouth—full to recover the hasty throng when they stray, and to pack them again into their cradle.'' Of all strange habits, perhaps that is strangest which some male fish ( Arius) have of hatching the eggs in their mouths ; what external dangers must have threatened them before this quaint brooding- Or is it not almost like a joke to see the male sea-horse swelling up as the eggs which he has stowed away in an external pocket hatch and mature, "till one day we see emerging from the aperture a number of small, almost transpar- ent creatures, something like marks of interrogation.'' But some female fishes also carry their eggs about, attached to the ventral surface (in the Siluroid fish, Aspredo), or stowed away in a ventral pouch (in Solenostoma, allied to pipe-fishes), arrange- ments which recur among amphi- bians, but on the dorsal surface chamber was chosen !. Fig. 25. — Sea - horse {Hippo- camjius guttulatus). (From Evolution of Sex; after Atlas of the body, of Naples Station.) , , ., . Amphibians, which they are linked careless like fishes, to by many ties, are either quaint or Again, the males assume the reSponsi- The obstetric frog {Alytes obstetricans), common in some parts of the Continent, takes the eggs from parents, bilities of nurture. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1892
