Purre. Sticklebacks 599 



a singular case : — In the garden of James Hankin, a nursery- 

 man at Ormskirk, in Lancashire, a throstle and blackbird had 

 paired ; this was well known to a number of individuals, my- 

 self amongst them. During two successive years the birds 

 reared their broods, which were permitted to fly, and evinced, 

 in all respects, the features of strongly marked hybrids. — 

 Henry Berry, Bootle, near Liver^pool, Aug. 27. 1834<. 



The Purre Breeds at Martin Mere, an extensive Water and 

 Swamp in Lancashire. — Bewick, in his account of the purre, 

 remarks that at present it is not known where this bird breeds. 

 I have shot the female with eggs fully matured, and found 

 several nests from which I had driven the old birds, at Martin 

 Mere, an extensive water and swamp in Lancashire. — Id, 



Fishes. — Facts on the Habits of Two Species of SticJdeback, 

 additional to the Facts in 111, 329. — Since the publication, 

 in in. 329., of some observations of mine on the habits of 

 the stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus Lin.), I have had an 

 opportunity, not only of confirming the remarks there re- 

 corded, but of enquiring farther into the habits of this curious 

 fish ; and have a few more facts to communicate. 



The fry of this fish were, this year, in abundance in the 

 ponds and ditches in this neighbourhood. [Clapton] as early 

 as April ; but I was unable to procure any full-grown fish, 

 earlier than the first week in June, except a few of the black 

 species, with ten dorsal spines (Gasterosteus pungitius) [see 

 III. 332.]. These, on being placed in a tub of water, did not 

 evince their ordinary pugnacity of character. However, I 

 confined about eight of the common species in the early part 

 of June ; and they, as usual, took possession of different sta- 

 tions in the tub, and fought with their wonted fury. This 

 disposition continued till the end of the month ; when, from 

 some cause which baffled all my efforts to discover, they 

 became sickly, the colours of the fighters faded, and they 

 gradually died, notwithstanding I occasionally fed them, and 

 gave them fresh water ever^^ week. I was more than ever 

 surprised at their rapid change of colour : simply removing 

 them into another vessel, during the process of changing the 

 water, caused a marked difference in the beauty of their 

 colours. That this fighting propensity is connected with 

 sexual desire, appears obvious from their different treatment 

 of the female fish. On introducing a female distended with 

 spawn into the tub, they did not attack her as they would have 

 attacked another ; but they rubbed up against her, and pushed 

 her about with their mouths : with a view, in all probability, 

 to make her deposit her spawn ; which, I suspect, they eat; 



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