. The study of animal life . ll strange habits, perhaps thatis strangest which some male fish { Arms) have ofhatching the eggs in their mouths ; what external dangersmust have threatened them before this quaint brooding- Or is it not almost like a joke to seethe male sea-horse swelling up asthe eggs which he has stowedaway in an external pocket hatchand mature, till one day wesee emerging from the aperture anumber of small, almost transpar-ent creatures, something likemarks of interrogation. Butsome female fishes also carrytheir eggs about, attached to theventral surface (in the Siluroidfi
. The study of animal life . ll strange habits, perhaps thatis strangest which some male fish { Arms) have ofhatching the eggs in their mouths ; what external dangersmust have threatened them before this quaint brooding- Or is it not almost like a joke to seethe male sea-horse swelling up asthe eggs which he has stowedaway in an external pocket hatchand mature, till one day wesee emerging from the aperture anumber of small, almost transpar-ent creatures, something likemarks of interrogation. Butsome female fishes also carrytheir eggs about, attached to theventral surface (in the Siluroidfish, Aspredo\ or stowed away ina \entral pouch (in Sole7iostoma,allied to pipe-fishes), arrange-ments which recur among amphi-bians, but on the dorsal surfaceof the body. Amphibians, like fishes, towhich they are linked by many ties, are either quaint orcareless parents. Again, the males assume the responsi-bilities of nurture. The obstetric frog {Alytes obstetricans),common in some parts of the Continent, takes the eggs from. Fig. 25.—Sea-horse (Hippo-campus guttjilaitts). (FromKvolution of Sex ; after Atlasof Naples Station.) CHAP. VI The Domestic Life of Animals iii his mate, winds them round his hind-legs, and retires into ahole, whence, after a fortnight or so, he betakes himself to thewater, there to be relieved by the speedy hatching of hisprecious burden. Even quainter is the habit of the male oia Chilian ixo^{Rhinoderma dafwinii), who keeps the eggs andthe young in a pouch near the larynx, turning a resonatingsac in a most matter-of-fact way into a cradle. He is some-what leaner after it is all over. It is interesting to noticehow similar forms and habits recur among animals of dif-ferent kinds, like the theme in some musical spiral form of shell common in the simple chalk-formingForaminifers recurs in the pearly nautilus ; the eye of afish is practically like that of many a cuttle, though thetwo are made in quite different ways ; and an extraordinary
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