Be this as it may, the fact that the domestic economy of these water-bugs did not proceed, throughout, upon the lines that might have been expected may first have led a German observer—Schmidt—to suspect something unusual, in consequence of which misgiving he looked more closely into the matter, and found—what had not before been imagined—that the male and not the female was the egg-bearer. He was not, however, able to determine how this arrangement was brought about, or with what feelings the male received and bore his burden. This was left for Miss Slater, who found that the females in her aquarium insisted upon laying their eggs on the backs of the males, that the latter objected to their doing so, which led to a struggle between the two, often lasting for two or three hours, but ending invariably in the victory of the female. The male has, then, to bow to necessity, but he does not do so in a cheerful spirit, nor even without some further efforts to escape his destiny. “That he chafes under the burden,” says Miss Slater, “is unmistakable; in fact my suspicions as to the sex of the egg-carrier were first aroused by watching one in an aquarium which was trying to free itself from its load of eggs, an exhibition of a lack of maternal interest not to be expected in a female carrying her own eggs. Generally the _Zaithas_ are very active, darting about with great rapidity, but an egg-bearer remains quietly clinging to a leaf, with the end of the abdomen just out of the water. If attacked he meekly receives the blows, seemingly preferring death (which, in several cases, was the result) to the indignity of carrying and caring for the eggs.”[145] This last, however, is not very explicit, so that, the whole account not being to hand, I cannot say what precisely happened. It is curious that the male should be so spiritless, after receiving the eggs, for this would seem to nullify such advantages as the arrangement might otherwise offer. The eggs must be laid somewhere, and might be supposed safer on the back of the male than elsewhere—in which fact, perhaps, we may see the origin of the instinct. But if the male, sinking under his burden, is able neither to defend himself nor it, this advantage seems nullified.