176 



TINKER. 



TEN-SPINED STICKLEBACK. 



Piscis aculeatus minor, Willoughby; p. 342. 



Gasterosteus pungitius, LinnvEus. Bloch; pi. 53, f. 4. 



" ' Donovan; pi. 32. Lacepede. 



" " Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 219. 



" " Loudon's Mag. of Nat. Hist., vol. iii, p. 332. 



" " Yakrell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 99. 



" " Jenyns; Manual, p. 350; Zoologist, vol. xiv, 



p. 5124. 



" " GuNTHEU; Catalogue of Fistes in the British 



Museum, vol. i, p. 6. 



There is a little fish of tlie family of Sticklebacks, which 

 is still smaller than the ordinary size of the three-spined 

 species, so that it is almost the smallest of British fishes; but, 

 although widely dispersed, it is not so commonly met with as 

 the others. In shape it is a little more slender, and the body 

 is not defended with plates, although a slight ridge near the 

 tail is represented in Donovan's plate, and referred to as of 

 casual occurrence by Cuvier and other describers; but it is 

 particularly distinguished by having nine or ten spines ("Wil- 

 loughby says eleven) on the back; these spines being of 

 course smaller and closer together (Fleming says more irregu- 

 larly disposed) than in the three and four-spined species. As 

 distimjuished from the others its habits are best described by 

 Mr. Newman, in the "Zoologist," as above referred to, whose 

 account we therefore for the most part copy. Another observer 

 also remarks, that although less formidably or securely armed 

 than most of the others, it is much the most quarrelsome of 

 its family. 



Mr. Newman says: "In the 'Fishes of Scandinavia,' plate 

 iv, fig. 2, is figured, under the name of G. pimgitius, a 



