122 FISH HARVESTING. 



eyes glow with fury, the colours decking his 

 scaly armour intensify, and flash with a kind of 

 phosphorescent brightness, until the diminutive 

 gladiator looks the impersonation of rage and 

 fury ; but as we cultivate his acquaintance, and 

 gain a better knowledge of his real character, 

 we shall discover that his quarrelsome disposi- 

 tion is not so much attributable to a morose 

 temper, and a love of fighting for fighting's sake, 

 as to a higher and more praiseworthy principle. 



No amount of thinking would lead one to 

 imagine that his pugnacity arises from, intense 

 parental affection : a love of offspring, scarcely 

 having a parallel in the living world, prompting 

 him to risk his life, and spend a great deal of his 

 time in constantly-recurring paroxysms of fury 

 and sanguinary conflicts, in which it often happens 

 that one or more of the combatants gets ripped 

 open or mortally stabbed with the formidable 

 spines arming the back. Skill in stickleback 

 battles appears to consist in rapidly diving under 

 an adversary, then as suddenly rising, and driving 

 the spines into his sides and stomach. The little 

 furies swim round and round, their noses tightly 

 jammed together ; but the moment one gets his 

 nose the least bit under that of his foe, then he 

 plies his fins with all his might, and forcing 



