FTVE-BEARDED ROCKLINO. 109 



cleceascd son Mr. llichard Quiller Couch, at the time when he 

 hvccl at Polperro; and when he was engaged in watching a 

 similar proceeding in the Fifteen-spined Stickleback. He says, 

 The next nest shews considerably less skill, but more 

 perseverance and energy. It is invariably formed of the common 

 coralline, (' CoralUna officinalis,] in large quantity, put together 

 without skill or arrangement, thrust into some cavity or crevice 

 of a rock close to the low-water mark, and the materials are 

 maintained there by no other bond than that of compression. 

 And as the coralline of which it is formed is sometimes not 

 to be found within the distance of one or two hundred feet 

 of the selected spot, it must be gradually collected, and brought 

 Avith a degree of perseverance at least equal to the intelligence 

 displayed in the construction. But perhaps the most extraordinary 

 part of the proceeding is shewn in the force exerted by the 

 fish when thrusting it so firmly into the crevice or hole in 

 the rock, and which we should have judged to be beyond the 

 power of any fish we are acquainted with. The grains of 

 spawn are small, their size being about the fifteenth of an inch 

 in diameter; semitransparent and yellow. They are not con- 

 tained in a cavity, like those of the Stickleback, but are 

 scattered through the mass, sometimes indeed in clumps, but 

 at others irregularly on the coralline. 



From the compact character of the nest, and that the grains 

 are dispersed through all parts of its structure, it is evident 

 that these grains of spawn must be deposited while the nest 

 is in the progress of formation. Having preserved the ova in 

 water until the young had come to life and escaped from 

 their confinement, in order to be assured of the species to 

 which they belonged, the conclusion drawn from their shape 

 and spotted appearance was that they were the progeny of a 

 species of Rockling; but on this point a less amount of 

 certainty was felt, as from the almost inaccessible situation of 

 the places in which the nests were placed, they could not be 

 strictly watched when the tide had flowed sufficiently high to 

 cover them. Whether any of these nests were permanently 

 covered with the sea on the rocky coast where they occur 

 remains uncertain, but with reference to the doubt here 

 expressed with regard to the species of fish produced from 

 these ova, on close observation I felt no doubt that they were 



