. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. PARENTAL CARE AMONG FRESH-WATER FISHES. ? 447 Paternal care is continued for many days after tlie birth of the young. At first these may be crowded together in a dense mass, but as time passes they disperse morie and more and spread round the father. Frequently, especially when the old one is feeding, some—one or more—of the young are taken into the mouth, but they are instinctively separated from the food and spit out. At last the young sw
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. PARENTAL CARE AMONG FRESH-WATER FISHES. ? 447 Paternal care is continued for many days after tlie birth of the young. At first these may be crowded together in a dense mass, but as time passes they disperse morie and more and spread round the father. Frequently, especially when the old one is feeding, some—one or more—of the young are taken into the mouth, but they are instinctively separated from the food and spit out. At last the young swarm venture farther from their birthplace, or perhaps are led away by their parent. Such a swarm may be occasionally no- ticed by the visitor to a likely stream, and one such the present writer saw in his youth as he was wandering along the bank of the Rahway River. Having read the paragraph b}^ Goldsmith, to the effect that no fishes exercise care over their progeny, he was quite unprepared for such a manifestation of parental interest, and, indeed, it was some time before he recognized the nature of the phenomenon. A black cloud was apparent near the opposite bank, which was slowly moving toward the middle of the stream. It was at first conjectured. F"IG. 30.—Atnicurtis ntbulosus. After Bean. to be a lot of tadpoles, but as it approached a large catfish became distinguishable in the midst of small, black wrigglers, which were at last recognized as young catfishes. The swarm seemed to revolve round the large fish, sometimes almost surrounding him and then massed by the side. For more than an hour the slow movement from the bank to midstream was observed, when other interests led tlie youth away, and he left the swarm to itself. The same swarming is practiced by the fish in an aquarium, as the writer has observed. ]\Iore prolonged observations were made and recorded by Smith and Harron : The very young fry were also taken into the mouths of the parents nnil blown out
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