167 



GASTEROSTEUS. 



The cheeks covered with mailed plates. Back with free spines 

 anterior to the dorsal fin. These spines have usually a slight mem- 

 branous border on their posterior edge, but do not constitute a fin. 

 The belly is strengthened with a stout bone in front, from whence the 

 generic name. To this bone, and the apparatus attached to it, are 

 fastened the ventral fins, the outer ray of which is a weapon of 

 offence. The gill membrane has no more than three rays. 



Linnaeus reckons this genus in his class of thoracic fishes; in which 

 the ventral fins are not attached to the thorax, nor behind to the 

 pelvis, but to the belly between these parts, and nearly under the 

 pectoral fins. 



THREE-SPINED STICKLEBACK. 



BANSTICKLE. MINNIS. SHARPLING. PRICKLEFISH. 



Pungitius Albert i, 



Gasterostee epinoche, 



Jonston; with a very poor figure. 



Willoughby; p. 341, tab. x, 14, the 

 figure bad. He supposes this fish 

 to be the Gentriscus of Theophrastus. 



LlNN.EUS AND BLOCH; pi. 53. 



" Donovan; pi. 11. 



traclmrus, Cuvier. Bough-tailed Stickleback. 



gymnurus-semiarmatus, Cuvier. Half-armed Stickleback. 



Cuvier. Smooth-tailed Stickleback. 

 Yarrell; Br. F., vol. i, p. 90, 94, 95. 

 Yarrell; Br. F., vol. i, p. 96,? and 



in Loudon's Mag., vol. iii, p. 521. 

 Yarrell; Br. F., vol. i, p. 97? 

 Jenyns; Manual, p. 348. 

 Dr. Gunther ; Catalogue of Fishes in 



the British Museum, vol. i, p. 2. 

 Lacepede and Risso. 



Gasterosteus aculeatus, 



leiurus, 



brachycentrus, 



spinulosus, 



This race of fishes is generally of small size, and on that 

 account commonly overlooked or disregarded by the casual 

 observer. Yet they occupy an important place in the economy 



