TEN-SriNKD STICKT.ERACK. 85 



ACAXTHOPTERYGII. WITH HARD CHEEKS. 



THE TEN-SPINED STICKLEBACK. 



Gasterosteus pungitiiis, Linn^us. 



t> „ Cuv. et Valenc. Hist. Nat. des Poiss. t. iv. p. 506. 



„ ,, Bloch, pt. ii. pi, 53, fig. 4. 



II ,, Teii-spined Stickleback, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 



335, pi. 61. 

 I, I, I, ,, Don. Brit. Fish. pi. 32. 



II 11 ,, I, Flem. Brit.An.p.219, sp. 167. 



The Ten-spined Stickleback is one of the smallest 

 of the fishes that occur on our coast, and appears to be gene- 

 rally distributed, though by no means so numerous as those 

 species with only three spines. It is found, however, in most 

 of the creeks near the coast, as well as in many of our rivers, 

 up which they are said to migrate in shoals in the spring. 

 In size, it varies from one inch and a half to two inches and a 

 quarter ; and is distinguished from all the other Sticklebacks 

 by the nine or ten spines on the back, all anterior to the 

 dorsal fin, and by its sides being perfectly smooth, without 

 any lateral plates, — which, with the number of dorsal spines 

 before mentioned, forms its best specific character. Cuvier, 

 in the last edition of the Regne Animal, tom. ii. p. 170, 

 hints at the existence of a second species of Ten-spined 

 Stickleback — the one having on the sides of the tail some 



