Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/345

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
THE CHROMIS PATER-FAMILIAS.
323

mouth. Here they remain in great number, pressed against one another like the seeds of a pomegranate. The animal's mouth becomes so distended by the presence of this numerous progeny that actually the jaws cannot meet. The cheeks are swollen and the animal pre-

Chromis Pater-familias of Lake Tiberias.

sents the strangest aspect. Some of the young, arrived at the perfect state, continue to live in the gills. All have the head directed toward the buccal opening of the father, the protecting cavity of which we have not seen them leave even for a moment. Though so numerous,