82 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



fry congregate, to have an ample proof of it, among the myriads of pinkeens which 

 swarm in such places. In fact, the voracity of the mature or half-grown stickle- 

 back almost exceeds credibility. Nothing comes amiss that has life — small crusta- 

 ceans, moluscs, fry, often double their own size ; worms, grubs, all alike are accep- 

 table. I have often been amused by the struggles and efforts of a pinkeen to 

 engulf one of those large white moths which, in the autumn, are so often found 

 floating on the water ; the fish, being unable to get a sufficient purchase to enable 

 him to overcome the resistance offered by the insect's outspread wings, would 

 return again and again to the charge, spinning the moth round ami round on the 

 water, and often, in his eagerness, springing completely out of it himself. A still 

 more remarkable instance of this ravenous appetite fell under my notice, having 

 when bait fishing, captured a pinkeen, scarcely more than an inch long, on a hook, 

 armed with a gentle nearly as big as himself, which the little brute had the imper- 

 tinence to swallow, and was, in consequence, hooked through the lip. But, though 

 acquainted with the voracious appetite of the full-grown fish, I must confess I was 

 not prepared to find it more strongly developed in the fry scarce six weeks old, 

 rendering them the terror and scourge of the fish pond— a fact first brought under 

 my notice by the same accurate observer who called my attention to their nest- 

 buihling powers, Mr. C. Brunetti, to whom I am principally indebted for the 

 details. In the month of September the following fish were placed in a long glass 

 jar — viz., two dace, about half an inch long, four gold-fish (hatched in June), about 

 an inch in length, one gudgeon, a minnow, and a single smooth-tailed stickleback, 

 the last measuring about a fourth of an inch in length. For about three weeks the 

 fish lived in harmony together, and seemed to be thriving, feeding freely on bread 

 crumbs, but at the end of that time my informant remarked that the stickleback had 

 given up feeding on the bread, while the gold-fish seemed out of sorts, languid and 

 pining, lying more at the bottom than had been their wont, and evidently not 

 thriving ; this led him to watch them, when he was witness to a singular scene. He 

 saw the pinkeen, after deliberately setting one of the gold-fish, as a dog would a 

 hare, make a dart at it, and bite a piece out of one of the gold-fish's pectoral fins, 

 and, retaining the piece in his mouth, rise to the top of the water, and there chew 

 and masticate it, in the peculiar manner common to most fishes, till he had reduced it 

 into a sufficiently comminuted state to allow it to be swallowed. After a momentary 

 rest, the little glutton would, diving, select another gold-fish, and go through the 

 game round of setting it, and biting a piece out of his fins, making as many as five 

 or six attacks in as many minutes. Having devoured as much of their pectorals as 

 he could, he next attacked their tails, and so persecuted them that, at length, the 

 unfortunate gold-fish, unable to preserve their balance, turned over on their backs 

 and died. Our little tyrant then paid similar attentions to the dace (which was 

 about double his own size), and succeeded in stripping its pectoral fins, but the dace, 

 being a hardier fish, bore this rough handling better than the gold-fish. The 

 minnow was also attacked, but proved too active for its tiny foe, while the gudgeon 

 escaped uninjured, protected either by his size, or, perhaps, because his fins are too 

 tough. 



This voracity exceeds that of all his fresh-water congeners, not even excepting 

 the pike, and opens up the question whether some effort should not be made to 

 exclude him, if possible, from our spawning ponds — a task, it must be confessed, 

 of some difficulty, when we consider the myriads of these fishes that are found in 

 almost all our waters ; but, perhaps, by watching the spawning grounds of the 

 Gasterostei in the proper season much might be done, at least to lessen their 

 numbers : as, for instance, by capturing the males on the nest, and the females 

 when congregated for the deposition of their ova ; while, by means of properly- 

 constructed gratings, the fish might be nearly totally excluded from the ponds. I 

 may as well mention a singular circumstance with reference to the distribution of 

 this fish. There is a district in the north of Clare, around Feakle, where the 

 fish, as far as I could learn, is utterly unknown, even by name, its place in the 

 streams being taken by the Smooth loach (G. barbatula), called there Cailliagh 

 Rhua— i.e., red hags — and the gudgeon, which (generally a local fish) here lite- 

 rally swarms in the sandy rivers, even in the subterranean tourmines of Kiltannan. 

 1 was told by several persons, who knew the pinkoen well, that it did not exist 



