The Big Game Fishes of the United States

in the case of the stickleback, the sunfish, Semotilus, lamprey, and many more, it is the male which builds the nest. The Acara carries the eggs and later the young in its mouth. The spawn is deposited in the open sea, in the case of the tuna, albacore, bonito, and other pelagic fishes; at the surface in bays, as in the case of the flying-fish. Some fishes, as certain California sculpins, attach eggs in great clusters to rocks; others again, as the rock-bass, form a simple nest, while others, as the salmon, deposit the eggs on sandy or gravelly bottom; some, as the blackfish, among weeds or grass. Over the eggs the male distributes the milt which impregnates them, and in a greater or less time the young appear, immediately becoming the prey to a thousand enemies. Some fishes possess the schooling instinct, as the herring, sardine, California barracuda, mullet, and others; the majority separate. Many young of pelagic fishes attach themselves to large jellyfishes; others to the physalia, and some adults enter the intestinal tube of holothurians. There are two other methods of reproduction among fishes and the fishlike animals. In some, as the surf-fishes and certain sharks, the young are born alive. The young of twenty or thirty or more surf-fishes school and swim together. Other fishes are ovoviviparous, the eggs being retained in the body until the young are hatched. In the vast concourse of fishes of the world every possible habit is seen. Originally all were ...