Hopkinsville Kentuckian., 1890-11-14
FISHES AS Fathers.
Dutiful Husbands of the Flnny Tribe Who
Rrnr THOR Onspring.

Ntur lHcif ohsprths.
II you want perfect model OF domcs-
tic virtue where can you find it in
higher perfection than In that cxcm-
plary and devoted father, the common
great pipc-hsh of the North Atlantic
and tho British Seas? Tho nigh-prln-
ciplcd lophobranch is, so careful OF his
callow and helpless young that he car
ries about tho unmatched cgss with him
under his own tail, in what scientific
ichthyologists pleasantly describe as a
sub-caudal pouch or cutaneous rcccp-
taclc.
There they hatch out in perfect Sc
curity, froe from tho dangers that besot
the spawn and fry of so many other less
tender-hoarted kinds; and as soon as
the little pipc-ilsh are big enough to
look after themselves tho sac divides
spontaneously down tho middle, and
allows them to escape, to shift for
themselves in the broad Atlantic. Even
So however, the juniors take care always
to keep tolerably near that friendly
shelter, and creep back into 1t again on
any threat OF danger, exactly as baby
kangaroos do into their mothers marsu-
plum.
The father-Gsh, in fact, has gone to
the trouble and expense OF developing
out of his own tissues a membraneous
bag on purpose to hold tho eggs and
young during the first stages OF their
embryonic evolution. This bag is
formed by two folds of the skin, one of
which grows out from zach side OF the
body, the fee margins being firmly
glued together in the middle by natu-
raj emulation while the eggs arc under
going incubation, but opening once moro
in the middle TO lot the little fish out
as soon as the process of Matching Is
fairly finished.
So curious a provision for the safety
OF the young in the pips.fish may be
compared to some extent with the
pouch in which kangaroos and other
marsupial animals carry their cubs after
birth till they have attained an age of
complete independence. But the
strangc't part of it all is the fact that
while in the kangaroo it is the mother
who owns the pouch and takes care OF
the young, in the pipe-fsh it is the
father, on the contrary, who thus spe-
cially provides for the safety of his do
tenselcss offspring, This topsy-turvy
arrangement is tho common rule
throug hout the class Of fishes.
There is paternally-miniod group
of catfish known as the genus Arius, of
Ceylon. Australia, and other tropical
parts, the males OF which carry about
the ova loose in their mouths, or rather
in an enlargement OF the pharynx,
somewhat resembling tho pelicans
pouch; and the spouses Of these very
devoted sires lay accordingly only very
few ova, all told. bu, each almost rs big
as hedge-sparrow's egg-a wonder
full contrast to the tiny mites of the cod
fish.
A fresh-water species OF the sea OF
Galilee, Chrom Androm by namc tded-
icatcd by science to the memory OF that
fisherman apostle, st. Andrcw, who must
often have ncttel them, has the
same habit of Matching out its young in
its own gullet Here again it is the
male fish upon whom this apparently
maternal duty devolves just as it is the
male cnssowary that sits upon the eggs
of his unnatural mate, and the male emu
that tends the nest, while the ben bird
looks on superciliously and contents
herself with exercising general friend
ly supervision of the nursery depart
ment In most fish families the eggs
are fertilized after they have been laid,
instead of before, which, no doubt, ac-