EXERCISES

1.  How could you tell the Sea-lion from the real Seal? 2.  Where are the Seal “rookeries”?  What happens there in the springtime? 3.  Why is the Sea-elephant so named?

LESSON IV

SOME STRANGE NURSERIES

As a rule, nests or nurseries are unknown in the world of fishes.  They lay their eggs and leave them; and the young ones have to fight their own battles, in a sea full of fierce and hungry enemies.  Indeed, it often happens that a parent fish is eager to make a meal of its own children!

The Codfish lays about nine million eggs!  You would hardly expect the female Codfish to make a nursery for such a family!  She would be much worse off than the “old woman who lived in a shoe.”  As a matter of fact, the eggs are laid in the open sea; and the Cod shows no interest in them, but leaves them to become food for many a roving enemy.

Those cousins of the Shark,—­the Skate and the Dog-fish,—­are more careful of their eggs.  Have you ever found their empty eggs on the sea shore?  Children call them “mermaids’ purses.”  But they are more like little horny pillow-cases than purses.

When first laid, the Dog-fish’s egg has a very long string or tendril at each corner.  As the fish lays the egg, she winds these tendrils round and round a sea-plant; thus the egg is fixed firmly until the young one is ready to escape from within (see p. 49).

The Skate’s egg is much the same, only there is no tendril, but a curved hook at each corner.  These hooks, of course, serve as anchors to hold the egg:  no doubt they catch in weeds and stones.  One fish, you see, ties her eggs with strings, the other uses anchors.  These large “purse eggs” are like cradles, and the baby Skates do not slip out of them until they are quite ready to look after themselves in the ocean.

There are fish in the sea which take great pains to save their eggs and babies from harm; they will even defend them at the risk of their own lives.  Of course these careful parents do not have huge families, like the Cod.  No; the fish that care for their young have small families, but the babies have a much better chance of living than the baby Cod.  It is one of Nature’s wise laws.

Our common Stickleback—­“Tiddler,” or “Red-throat,” as boys call him—­builds a nest in ponds.  He has a seaside cousin, the fifteen-spined Stickleback, who is also a nest-builder.  This little fish is fairly common round our coasts, living in weedy pools by the shore, where it devours any small creature unlucky enough to come near.  It is about six inches long, this sea Stickleback, with a long snout, and its body is very thin near the tail.