The St. Johns herald., 1892-12-08
FINNY NURsLINGS.
Progressive Stages in the Devel-
 opment of Fish Life.
The sportive Actions of the Young Fry Upon Their Escape from the Shell An Interesting Chapter for
 Young Eaturalists.

In course of time-ten or fifteen days in many common forms-the little baby fish is fully formed within the egg and soon is ready to emerge, says Longman's Magazine. If the weather be very cold the period of development may be pro- longed, but the approach of the hatch ing stage is usually intimated by the continued movements of the impris- oned embyro, impatient, apparently, to enter upon its free life in the external world of waters. All the changes under
 gone by the developing fish may be ob- served without difficulty with a power ful lens and if an appropriate specimen be secured the observer may be fortu- nate enough to behold the little fish burst its prison bonds. At the point of the thin, transparent shell where the tail of the fish lies, gaping opening usually appears, and through it that delicate member is pushed out like long, glassy oar. After the tail the body, with huge ball of yolk hanging from the under side, follows; and lastly the tiny blunt head protrudes, '1ike the head of bulldog" as fisherman once aptly described it. Sometimes the head with its enormous staring eyes is pushed out first Of all, while at other times the tail and body are free, but the large head remains inclosed. De- spite all the struggles of the young ish-and they are often desperate enough during the matching process the head may continue inclosed in it's glassy helmet and the unfortunate baby fish bravely swims about, as pathetic spectacle as 'the man in the iron mask" Should it be so fortunate as to become completely liberated its capers in the water are as rapturous as the gambols of lamb. 1t has aspirations which cannot be checked. Ceaslessly it wrig- gles upward and then sinks quietly down again, only to renew time after time the ascending movement. There is no monotony in its actions, for now it may be seen plunging forward by a series of jerks in a horizontal direction, now it spins round in spiral fashion, and only when tired of these varied evo- lutions does it lie extended and in- active, swaying about in the eddying water. If our little whiting or had dock succeeds in reaching the surface it wriggles around in endless circles or wanders aimlessly from one spot to an- other. No Arladne make her advent to help this wandering newborn Theseus. But though the sea be wide it cannot stray far from all companionship; countless millions of newly matched brothers are swimming on every side and the surface of the water often ap- pears to be quite alive with them.
 The young of most of our food fishes enter upon life very much in this way. They are all, moreover, shaped after similar manner, and apparently in- tended for mode of existence that is practically identical. All alike are very rudimentary creatures during their early days. Even the trained eye can, as rule, detect no mouth-the mouth, like the eyes of the young kitten, being closed for some time-and the little fish feeds by slowly absorbing its stock of food-yolk. The brains, gills, liver and other organs, so necessary to the adult fish, are either uniformed or in very immature condition; even the backbone is not a true backbone at this time, but appears merely as an elastic rod, called the notochord, the primitive representa- tive of the bony vertebral column.