THE THEORY OF TITTLEBATS. 829 



And now, I think, Ave are beginning to get a little nearer toward the 

 theory of tittlebats. For the male stickleback is a prodigious warrior, 

 and, when he meets a rival of his own kind, he engages with him at 

 once in deadly warfare. Their battles, says Mr. Darwin, are at times 

 desperate, for these puny combatants fasten tight on each other for 

 several seconds, tumbling over and over again, until their strength 

 appears utterly exhausted. Bold and pugnacious as they are, how- 

 ever, it is only my lords who thus fiercely contend with one another ; 

 their demure little mates remain always perfectly pacific, gentle, and 

 even-tempered. With the rough-tailed stickleback, the male's while 

 fighting swim round and round one another, biting and endeavoring 

 to pierce each other's mailed skin with their raised lateral spines 

 or lances. Small as they are, their bite is very severe, and inflicts a 

 deadly wound upon their antagonist ; and Mr. Noel Humphreys re- 

 marks that they use their lateral spines with fierce effect, so that he 

 has seen oue brave stickleback during a stout battle rip up his oppo- 

 nent from end to end, till the vanquished hero sank to the bottom and 

 died ingloriously. 



It is during the moment of battle, and just before and after it, that 

 the colors of all fighting animals become invariably most intense. The 

 reason is plain : battle is joined during the mating-season, and " before 

 the face of maidens and of dames" ; and, as in human tournaments, 

 the ladies stand by to applaud the conquerors and to reward their 

 pi'owess. They are themselves the prize of the encounter they stimu- 

 late. Besides, the highest physical vigor and the highest excitement 

 bring out the greatest beauty both of men and animals. The angrier 

 you make a mandrill, the more vividly tinted are his cheeks and 

 callosities. The frilled lizards and flying-dragons glow with all the 

 brightest colors of the rainbow when you tease or annoy them. The 

 turkey-cock swells his crimson wattles and spreads his ruffled feathers 

 to the utmost at sight of a rival or a mischievous boy. There is a lit- 

 tle hot-tempered fish known as Betta pugnax, and kept as a sort of 

 domestic pet by the Siamese (much as the Christian English gentle- 

 man of forty or fifty years since kept fighting-cocks) to display its 

 prowess for the edification of the Mongolian intelligence. " When in 

 a state of quiet," says Cantor, " its didl colors present nothing remark- 

 able ; but if two be brought together, or if one sees its own image in 

 a looking-glass, the little creature becomes suddenly excited, the raised 

 fins and the whole body shine with metallic colors of dazzling beauty, 

 while the pi-ojected gill-membrane, waving like a black frill round the 

 throat, adds something of grotesqueness to the general appearance. 

 In this state, it makes repeated darts at its real or reflected antagonist. 

 But both, when taken out of each other's sight, instantly become quiet." 

 The fighting-fishes, as the Siamese call them, are kept in globes like 

 gold-fish, and fed from time to time with the larvse of mosquitoes. 

 The Siamese are as wild after their combats as the Malays are for 



