flesh is said to be excellent and rather red, on which account it is called the Burnett salmon. It is quite restricted in its habitat, having only been met with in the Burnett and the Condamine Rivers. The Osteoglossum leichardti reaches a weight of twenty-five pounds. The fish is very handsome, and is taken with the hook. The Neoceratodus blanchardi is something like the Ceratodus, but differs in the structure of the teeth. It is found in the River Fitzroy, and attains a weight of from forty to ninety pounds.

The rivers in which this fish is found become almost dry at certain seasons of the year, and it is still a problem what be comes of them, although it is suggested by some that they bury in the mud, and remain there until the return of water. -14 B, II., 1876, 129.

POEY'S CATALOGUE OF CUBAN FISHES.

Professor Felipe Poey, the veteran Cuban ichthyologist, has recently published a catalogue of the species of that isl and, in which he enumerates seven hundred and thirty species. Of these, seventy-eight are considered somewhat doubtful, leaving six hundred and fifty-two. Of these, sixty-four will probably prove to be undescribed, but the determination of this will depend upon further researches and compari

sons.

HABITS OF THE SALMON.

Mr. Henry Lee has lately published some of his observations on the salmon in the Brighton Aquarium in the London Field, which throw much light upon some of the vexed questions in regard to the natural history of this noble fish. He states that in April, 1873, nine salmon smolts, taken in the Usk River on their way to the sea, were placed in the aquarium. These were kept in tanks, some of them in fresh water, to which salt was afterward added gradually; the others were placed directly in the salt water, the latter apparently sustaining the change better than the others. Most of these fish died after a short time; two, however, remained, which were fed on shrimps and minced fish, and grew so fast that their increase was appreciable day by day. At the end of twelve months after their receipt, or, in April, 1874, only one survived, and this fish for a time ceased to grow, and was

supposed to be pining for the fresh water. It was, however, still retained in the salt water; and in May it recovered its appetite, and fattened up greatly without increasing in size. In September it again refused food, and by the middle of February, 1875, had dwindled away considerably in size and condition. Afterward it began to feed again, devouring a whole herring, chopped up for it, at a single meal.

The fish did not grow very much during the year 1875, probably requiring a larger range of water for its proper condition. The inferences derived by Mr. Lee from these facts are that smolts, going to the sea, weighing two ounces, or thereabout, return from their first migration as grilse in a little more than a year, weighing from three to five pounds; that they can exist for at least three years in the sea without ascending a river, although probably a return to the latter is necessary for its continued and more healthy growth. He also concludes that from the end of the first year to that of the fourth they feed more heartily and grow more rapidly, and are in better condition at one season than another.

Mr. Lee also remarks that the salmon never takes its food below the plane of its own position in the water, and that when shrimps and portions of fish are thrown into the tank, it will rise to meet them as they sink toward it, but will not follow any portion that has sunk below its level, nor will it feed on the bottom, in this respect being very different from the sea trout in the same tank, which rummage along the bottom for food, and pick up shrimps and pieces of fish lying there.

THE RAINBOW FISII.

The peculiarities in the nesting and hatching out of the eggs of fishes constitute one of the principal elements of interest in their study, and almost every day some variations from the established method is brought to light. One of the most remarkable instances in this respect is that presented by a small fish of the genus Macropus, found in the marshes. and ditches along the Ganges, known in India as the Colisa, and called by the English the rainbow fish. It is characterized by its brilliant colors, and by the presence of a long filament substituted for the ventral fins. Some curious facts have lately been given by M. Carbonnier as to the nesting of

this animal. Seizing a little conferva plant with his mouth, the male raises it to the surface. Left there, the plant would sink, but the fish emits some air bubbles, and places them under it as a support. Repeating the process several times, he thus produces the first day a small floating island, about three meters in diameter. Next day he continues the supply of air, and accumulates the bubbles toward the central part, the effect being to produce a sort of dome, balanced on the surface. He then makes a rim for it with the same materialsplants and bubbles-and, going inside, he smooths and softens the interior surface. The female is then solicited to enter. The eggs are first deposited in a concave fold of the dorsal fin of the male, where they are fecundated. After laying her eggs, the female withdraws, leaving to the male fish. the education of his family. He deposits the eggs with care separately in the raised part of the nest. At a later period, when he sees they need a different medium and treatment, he rises in the middle of the dome and bursts it, letting the bub bles escape, whereupon the structure flattens in the water with the imprisoned embryos, which are beginning to appear in a new stage of existence. To prevent their escape, he tears the flat rim of the nest into a sort of hanging fringe. For some time he exercises great surveillance over the progeny, till their frequent escapes and excursions announce the end of his fatigues, which occurs some eight or ten days after the flattening of the nest.-1 B, Jan. 2, 1876, 198.

INCUBATION OF CHROMIS PATERFAMILIAS.

Among the various abnormal methods of incubation, none are more curious than the habit of certain fishes of the cat-fish family of keeping the eggs in the mouth until the young are hatched, this act being generally performed by the male. Quite recently M. Lortét has added to the list the Chromis paterfamilias, as observed in a stream near the borders of the Sea of Tiberias, and not far from the ancient Capernaum. In this case the female deposits her eggs in a sandy depression in the bed of the stream, and the male sucks them into his mouth, and by some peculiar action causes them to be interpolated between the plates of the gills, where they are held without disturbance. The period of incubation is not mentioned, but the young, when hatched, leaving the gills, pass

forward into the cavity of the mouth, where they remain closely packed, heads forward, the cheeks of the parents swelling out as the young increase in size, and presenting a most singular appearance. A few of the young sometimes remain between the branchial plates, but most of them pass forward as stated. M. Lortét did not ascertain at what period the young left the mouth of the parent, but presumed that they remained there a considerable time. Whether, after they once leave, they re-enter for protection, is not stated. It is very remarkable that the young are not swallowed by the parent while in their receptacle.—6 B, December 13, 1875.

CAUSE OF THE BLACK SPOTS ON THE SCALES OF FISH.

The abnormal occurrence of black spots or specks upon the scales or external surface of fishes has frequently been observed, and quite often mistaken for regular coloration. Dr. Fatio, of Geneva, however, has been investigating some of these cases, and finds that in nearly all of them a small parasitic worm occupies the centre of this spot, and is easily observable by the microscope. This is inclosed in two cysts, with a peculiar liquid between, the inner being oval and transparent, and the outer round, with thick fibrous walls, outside of which is the mass of star-shaped pigment cells. The further stages of this worm have not yet been worked out, although it is quite probable that when the fish is devoured by its predaceous neighbors, this enters into another stage of the alternations of generation which have become so familiar of late years to investigators.-18 A, March 19, 1875, 10.

REMARKABLE STRUCTURE OF YOUNG FISHES.

Dr. Gunther, of London, has recently discovered that the young of the sword-fishes and chatodons possess structures exceedingly different from that of the adults. In the young chaetodons the front of the body is shielded with large bony plates, which in one species are produced into three long equidistant horns, which diverge ray-like from the body. In the sword-fishes the scapular arch is prolonged into a horn at the lower part, and the belly fins are wanting. There is no sword, but the jaws are long, of equal length, and both

are furnished with teeth. As the fish grows, the scapular horn disappears, the ventral fins grow, and the upper jaw is developed in excess of the lower. The long teeth disappear, and the upper jaw grows into the toothless sword-like weapon which gives the fish its peculiar character.

CURIOUS HABITS OF FISHES.

No group of animals appears to have so many peculiarities in connection with the act of reproduction and the treatment of the eggs and young as fish, and Mr. W. Saville Kent has lately announced quite a new illustration of this fact in the London Field, as shown by observations made at the Westminster Aquarium upon the crested blenny of England. On one occasion his attention was attracted to certain bead-like bodies attached to the fins of one of the specimens lately received. These proved to be eggs, but it was not yet certain whether they were carried by the male or the female fish. Generally, where the eggs are protected by the parent, it is the male that assumes this duty. In the pipe-fish and seahorse especially, the eggs, when laid by the female, are carried under the abdomen of the male until hatched.-19 A, August 19, 218.

MALE ROTIFER.

Mr. Henry Davis has succeeded in observing the male of the well-known Conochilus volvox. In the clear jelly in which these animals live two distinct kinds of eggs may be found-the female egg, transparent and nearly colorless; the other kind (ephippial of Huxley) somewhat larger, nearly opaque, and reticulated with dark lines within the shell; it is sometimes, though erroneously, called "winter-egg;" these are probably destined to preserve the species through the drought to which the ponds that the animals flourish in are constantly liable. A third kind, the male egg, is more rarely seen it is transparent, showing the male neatly packed up, but even at this tender age restless and gymnas tic beyond belief. The male, beyond his rarity, has little in him to admire. He is scarcely larger than the head of one of his sisters, and his constant endeavor while under the microscope is to prove himself without form and void; to simulate a preternaturally lively Amoeba, and as soon as