162 ACANTHOPTERYGII. MAILED CHEEKS. 



line of the vent, and the base of the tail being smooth 

 and not keeled. It occurs in similar situations to 

 the other ISticklelmcks, but not always in company 

 with them. It is described in the Histoire Nat. des 

 Poissons^ and Dr. Parnell has noticed it in marshes 

 near Kincardine, and in ditches in Gulane Links, 

 Haddingtonshire. 



(Sp. 28.) G. leiurus. The Smooth-tailed Stickle- 

 back. In this species the lateral plates do not ex- 

 tend farther than the second dorsal spine, the flank 

 beyond being smooth, soft, and marked only by the 

 linear depressions produced on the surface by the 

 divisions of the lateral muscles. The males, espe- 

 cially in the spawning season, are red about the 

 throat and breast, and shaded with bright green on 

 the sides. It appears to be of this species that 

 Mr. Pennant gives the following striking account ; 

 *' Nowhere do these fish appear in greater quanti- 

 ties than in the fens of Lincolnshire, and some of 

 the rivers that creep out of them. At Spalding 

 there are, once in seven or eight years, amazing 

 shoals, that appear in the Welland, and come up 

 the river in the form of a vast column. They are 

 supposed to be the multitudes that have been 

 washed out of the fens by the floods of several 

 years, and collected in some deep hole, till, over- 

 charged with numbers, they are periodically obliged 

 to attempt a change of place. The quantity is so 

 great, that they are used to manure the land, and 

 trials have been made to get oil from ihem. A 

 aotion may be had of this vast shoal, by saying 



