Jan. 1, 1SG6.] 



SCIENCE. GOSSIP. 



His movements, when any live prey is put in the 

 cage, appear to the observer ridiculous in the highest 

 degree, owing to the great size of the head and the 

 large round dark eyes. When he has more food than 

 he wants, he stores it up in a corner. Although the 

 outer front toe is reversible, I have never seen him 

 perching but with two toes before and two behind. 



Until very lately I believed that the Owl never 

 touched water ; for though I had frequently placed 

 it in his cage, and kept it there for two or three 

 weeks, I could never find that he either bathed in it 

 or drank from it ; but a few days ago, seeing him 

 very restless, I gave him another trial. He seemed 

 quite pleased with it, and, hastening to it, drank 

 heartily, and then jumped in and completely drenched 

 himself with it. He does not appear to moult his 

 feathers so often or so completely as other birds; 

 for the primary wing-feathers have not been changed 

 since I first had him. Hy. Ullyett. 



STICKLEBACKS' NESTS. 



MANY of the readers of the " Science Gossip " 

 will no doubt be inclined to dismiss the notion 

 of nest-building fish with ridicule ; nevertheless, as 

 they with little trouble and much pleasure to them- 

 selves can prove that many, if not all of the species 

 of Sticklebacks, those well known inhabitants of 

 every pool left by the winter's Hoods, and every 

 ditch communicating with a river, do build nests 

 for the concealment of their eggs and the protection 

 of their young, is a matter placed beyond all doubt. 



The present writer having heard the fact reported, 

 and read that such was the case in some popular 

 works, but not finding it confirmed at first hand by 

 any of the more respectable writers on Ichthyology— 

 Yarrell not even alluding to it in the first edition of 

 his "British Fishes," although an instance is quoted 

 in a subsequent edition of that work, to which the 

 writer has not had access— determined to do his 

 utmost to put the matter beyond all doubt, at least 

 as regarded himself, bearing in mind that non-success 

 would prove nothing against the assertion as regards 

 the fish in a state of nature when food and situation 

 were favourable, while, on the other hand, success 

 would most triumphantly prove it. 



An aquarium, about nine inches deep and from 

 fifteen to eighteen in diameter, was procured, and a 

 layer of sand an inch or two in thickness, and some 

 large stones placed therein (this sand was procured 

 from a brook in order that animalcules suitable as 

 food might be present in the water), and some 

 Anacharis and other water plants planted in it. 



The aquarium was then left to itself for some 

 time, in order that the plants might take root, and 

 the animalcules propagate themselves. 



Two pairs of sticklebacks we procured about the 

 middle of April ; the males having already put on 



their spring dress of scarlet and green, and the 

 females being full of spawn. 



After some clays a small hole was observed in t lie 

 sand near a large stone. To this hole one of the 

 males was paying the most assiduous and extraordi- 

 nary attentions : he would poise himself at an angle 

 of forty-five degrees or thereabout, and commence a 

 tremendous motion of his whole body, making the 

 centre the pivot, and at the same lime beating the 

 water with his fins. This motion increased regularly 

 in rapidity [for a minute or so, when it ceased 

 abruptly, and the fish darted off either in pursuit 

 of some tresspasser whom he chastised (the females 

 not even being exempt), or to obtain materials to 



Fig. 1. Three-spined Stickleback and nest. 



increase his nest. These consisted of pieces of 

 stick or moss, which, being saturated with water, 

 were of such gravity as to prevent their rising. He 

 deposited these with great care, leaving a beauti- 

 fully rounded hole in the middle, and then having 

 procured a mouthful of sand laid it over the looser 

 materials to cement them together. 



When completed, the nest resembled a flattened 

 haycock. 



Eor about a week after its completion it seemed 

 deserted, but one morning it was found that some 

 eggs had been laid. These for the size of the fish 

 are very large, being about as large as a middling- 

 sized shot ; they hatched in about from ten days to 

 a fortnight, the young fish remaining in the nest 

 until the yolk-bag was absorbed, when, being large 

 enough to look after themselves, they went their 

 ways, the parent who had so tenderly guarded them 

 took no further heed of them, and himself died, such 

 being the case iu both instances which came under 

 notice, both parents sickening and dying from the 

 effects of spawning and watching, or perhaps from 

 the aquarium not being fitted for their recovery. 



Erom the time of the eggs being laid until the 

 dispersion of the young fish, the male was continu- 

 ally hovering over them in the manner described ; 



