8z6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



scorn and ridicule of our great novelist, be can boast of almost as 

 many aliases as the Frencb counts and other sporting gentlemen who 

 periodically return to journalistic fame under the ever-green beading 

 of "The Great Turf Frauds." Besides his recognized literary Eng- 

 lish name of Stickleback, with its vulgar London variant Tittlebat, he 

 is also diversely known to the ingenuous youth of this kingdom as the 

 Banestickle, the Jack Bannel, the Harry Banning, the Sharpling, the 

 Ban tide, the Tanticle, the Hackle, the Sharpnails, the Stanstickle, the 

 Tommy Parsy, the Prickleback, the Barmy, and the Tinker ; all names 

 implying at once a certain amount of affectionate regard on the part 

 of his sponsors not uncombined with a due respect (the child of expe- 

 rience) for his remarkable offensive and defensive powers. A true 

 theory of tittlebats would have to account not only for the peculiari- 

 ties of bony structure which have secured the stickleback these his 

 many names, but also for the oddities of domestic arrangement which 

 I shall further unfold in the course of this article. 



The common English stickleback, with whom I propose here chiefly 

 to deal, is a fresh-water fish, much discovered in ponds and small riv- 

 ers, and abundant everywhere in the neighborhood of London. Many 

 famous anglers, as Frank Buckland used to observe, were first " en- 

 tered " for the noble sport by fishing for stickleback in the Regent's 

 Canal. The fishing is most frequently pursued in the following fashion : 

 You take a stick with a piece of thread tied to it, and a short bit of 

 worm fastened to the string by the middle without any hook or even 

 a bent pin to represent one. When the stickleback, who is naturally 

 a greedy feeder, approaches the worm, he quickly swallows it, and 

 you pull him up with a jerk before he has had time effectually to dis- 

 gorge his gulpecl-down mouthful. Expert anglers at this particular 

 task have even been known to jerk up two sticklebacks at a time, each 

 intent upon one end of the worm ; but this is a fine point of science 

 not to be imitated by the uninstructed tyro. The fish, when landed, 

 are consigned to pickle-bottles filled with water, and are commonly 

 sold to the proprietors of domestic aquariums for the small charge of 

 a penny a dozen. In this way, a working acquaintance with the habits 



and manners and peculiarities 

 of the stickleback has been 

 generally diffused throughout 

 a large portion of the unsci- 

 entific British population. 

 Nevertheless, I hold it is a 



Two-Spined Stickleback (Gasterosteus Uaaileatus.) l 11 



theory of tittlebats falls in any 

 way below the dignity of a profound philosopher. On the contrary, 

 there are points in the psychology and physiology of the common stick- 

 leback which merit the close and undivided attention of the most ac- 

 complished naturalist. 



