Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1890-11-14
daFlSHES AS FATHERS.
Dutlfpl Husbands of the Finny Tribe Whs
Rear Their Offspring.

Rear Their Offspring.
II you want perfect model of domes'
tic Virtue, where can you find it in
higaer perfection than in that eXem-
plafy and devoted father, the common
great pipe-fsh Of the North Atlantic
and the British Seas? The high-prin.
cfpled lophobranch is so careful of his
cbllow and helpless young that he car
res about the unmatched eggs with him
under his own tail, in what scientific
ichthyologists pleasantly describe as a
sub-caudal pouch or cutaneous recep-
.tacle.
There they hatch out in perfect Sc
curity, free from the dangers that beset
she spawn and fry of so many other less
tendef-hearted kinds; and as soon as
the little pipe-fish are big enough to
look after themselves the sac divides
spontaneously down the middle, and
allows them to Escape, to shift for
themselves in the broad Atlantic. Even
30, however the Juniors take care always
10 keep tolerablyg near that friendly
shelter. and creep back into it again on
my threat of danger, exactly as bal
lxangaroos do into their mothers mars
plum.
The father-fsh, in fact, has gone
the trouble and expense of developer
out of his own tissues membraneol
bag on purpose to hold the eggs ar
young during the first stages of the
embryonic evolution. This bag
formed by two folds of the skin, one
which grows out from each side of tb
body, the free margins being frml
glued together in the middle by matt
raj emulation while the eggs are under
going incubation, butopening once MOI
in the middle to let the little fish oil
as soon as the process of Matching
fairly finished.
So curious provision for the safet
of the young in the pipe-fsh may
compared to some extent with tt
pouch in which kangaroos and otht
marsupial animals carry their cubs aftC
birth till they have attained an age
complete independence. But tt
strangest part of it all is the fact tn;
while in the kangaroo it is the motht
who owns the pouch and takes care
the young, in the pipe-fsh 1t is IL
father, on the contrary, who thus sp
cially provides for the safety of his d
fenseless offspring. This topsy-turv
arrangement is the common ru.
throughout the class of fishes.
There is paternally-minded grou
OF catfish known as the genus Arius, {
Ceylon, Australia and other tropica
parts, the males OF which carry aDou
| the ova loose in their mouths, or rathe
in an enlargement of the pharynx
somewhat resembling the pelican's
pouch; and the spouses of these very
devoted sires lay accordingly only very
few ova, all told, but each almost as 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, Chromis Andrea by name (ded-
icated by science to the memory of that
fisherman apostle, st. Andrew, who must
often have netted 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 cassowary that sits upon the eggs
of his unnatural mate, and the male emu
that tends the nest, while the hen 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 fortified after they have been laid,
instead of before, which, no doubt, ac-
counts for the seeming anomaly.-N Y.
| Journal