202 FISHES FOR MARINE AQUARIA. 



a severe wound, both on fish and man, whence its 

 name among the west-country people of " sea-adder." 

 It is the two rows of elongated hard plates under- 

 neath the bodies of sticklebacks which have given 

 them the name of G aster ostens, i. e. " bony-belly." 

 The fifteen-spined species is a shore-loving fish, and 

 should therefore be kept in a shallow or tidal tank. 

 The " pogge," or armed bull-head (Aspidophorus Euro- 

 pans) is not distinctly related to it, but its body is 



Fig. 134. 



Armed Bull-head, or Pogge (Aspidophorus Europceus), 



more octagonal, being covered with eight rows of 

 strong plates. The mouth is furnished with curious 

 cilia. This fish is a very graceful species, but terribly 

 destructive to the young shrimps, prawns, and lobsters. 

 In pursuit of the latter species they frequent the deeper 

 parts of the sea, and in the aquarium may be seen 

 keeping close to the floor, whose tint so well comports 

 with that of their bodies that it screens them from 

 observation. Indeed, to a certain extent the pogge 



