STICKLEBACKS. is>l 



CHAPTER V. 



STICKLEBACKS AND THEIR NESTS THE BULLHEAD THE ROCK- 

 COD THE CHIRUS FLATFISH. 



THE genus Cottoidce (fish having mailed cheeks) 

 has a great many representatives, common on 

 Vancouver Island and the British Columbian 

 coasts. The least of the family, the stickleback, is 

 so singularly different from most other fishes 

 in its habits, as to merit the first consideration. 



In the months of July and August it would 

 be difficult to find a stream, large or small, 

 swift or slow, lake, pool, or muddy estuary, 

 east and west of the Cascade Mountains, that 

 has not in it immense shoals of that most 

 irritable and pugnacious little fish the stickle- 

 back, ever ready on the slightest provocation to 

 engage in a battle. Let friend or foe but rub 

 against his royal person, or come nearer his pri- 

 vate subacoieous garden than he deems consis- 

 tent with safety or good behaviour, in a moment 

 the spines are erected like spear-points, the tiny 



