vulgaris_, as it were, without ancestry, without posterity, still
represents the Fresh-Water Sun-Fish in nature. It is the most
common of all, and seen on every urchin's string; a simple and
inoffensive fish, whose nests are visible all along the shore,
hollowed in the sand, over which it is steadily poised through
the summer hours on waving fin. Sometimes there are twenty or
thirty nests in the space of a few rods, two feet wide by half a
foot in depth, and made with no little labor, the weeds being
removed, and the sand shoved up on the sides, like a bowl. Here
it may be seen early in summer assiduously brooding, and driving
away minnows and larger fishes, even its own species, which would
disturb its ova, pursuing them a few feet, and circling round
swiftly to its nest again: the minnows, like young sharks,
instantly entering the empty nests, meanwhile, and swallowing the
spawn, which is attached to the weeds and to the bottom, on the
sunny side. The spawn is exposed to so many dangers, that a very
small proportion can ever become fishes, for beside being the
constant prey of birds and fishes, a great many nests are made so
near the shore, in shallow water, that they are left dry in a few
days, as the river goes down. These and the lamprey's are the
only fishes' nests that I have observed, though the ova of some
species may be seen floating on the surface. The breams are so
careful of their charge that you may stand close by in the water
and examine them at your leisure. I have thus stood over them
half an hour at a time, and stroked them familiarly without
frightening them, suffering them to nibble my fingers harmlessly,
and seen them erect their dorsal fins in anger when my hand
approached their ova, and have even taken them gently out of the
water with my hand; though this cannot be accomplished by a
sudden movement, however dexterous, for instant warning is