NEST-BUILDING FISHES.
Not alone in color do fishes resemble birds. In the home-life and love of offspring a close resemblance obtains. Many are nest-builders, erecting structures quite as complicated as those of some birds, and hardly less elaborate in design and finish.
Floating along some woodland stream, or strolling along its grass-fringed margin, we have watched the domestic life of the Sun-fish, the Eupomotis vulgaris of writers, that mottled, bespangled beauty that seems always on hand to be caught by the angler in default of more noble game.
Where delicate grasses grow, and floating lily-pads cast their shadows, there among the winding stems the Sun-fish builds its home. Moving in pairs in and out among the lilies near the shore, as if jointly selecting a site for a nursery, they may be seen. The spot is generally a gravelly one, and, once determined upon, no time is lost in pushing the work to a speedy conclusion. For several inches around the space is cleared of stems or roots, and these are carefully carried away. The smaller roots are swept aside by well-directed blows of their tails, or by mimic whirlpools which the fishes, standing over the nest, create by their fins. The stones are next taken up, the smaller ones in their mouths, the larger being pushed out bodily, or fanned away by the sweeping process, until an oval depression, with a sandy bottom, finally appears. About the sides the stems of aquatic verdure, which seem to have been purposely left, may be seen standing, and these now naturally fall over, oftentimes constituting the nest a perfect bower, with walls bedecked with buds, while the roof is a mat of white lilies floating upon the surface. Here the eggs are deposited, the male and female alternately watching them.
NEST OF COMMON SUN-FISH.
Male and Female Defending It from Attack of Cat-fish.
While the Sun-fish is always recognized as the most peaceful of the finny tribe, and only chasing in wanton playfulness its neighbors, it is otherwise when the passions are wrought to a high pitch of excitement through the play of amatory influences in the spring-time. Let a stranger, a bewhiskered cat-fish, approach the bower, and war is at once declared. The little creatures snap at the intruder with anger and defiance. Their sharp dorsal fins stand erect, the pectorals vibrate with repressed emotion, while the violent movements of their powerful tails evince a readiness and determination to stand by their home at all hazards. Indeed, so vigorous is their charge, that even large fishes are forced to retreat, and, as the Sun-fishes build in companies, the intruder often finds himself attacked by a whole colony of them.
Nearly all the Sun-fishes are nest-builders, some forming arbors, as we have seen, others scooping out nests on sandy shoals, while one, the Spotted Sun-fish, is more democratic, affecting muddy streams, where, on the approach of cold weather, it makes a nest in the muddy bottom, and there it lies dormant till the coming spring.
Who has not made friends with the Dace—Rhinichthys atronasus? He is a veritable finny jester. We have watched him in his watery retreat, and, perhaps unseen, have played the spy upon his domestic proceedings.
Life is a gala time to these little fishes. They have seemingly never a care or a bother. In jest they join in the chase of some curious minnow that intrudes upon their presence, suddenly changing their course to dash at some resplendent dragon-fly that hovers over the leafy canopy of their home, and as quickly darting off again to attack some bit of floating leaf or imaginary insect.