36 



not inappropriately been compared to the humming bird. A smaller 

 fish, the Pond fish (Lepomis A^iritus), with a body more robust and 

 thicker than the preceding is found often associated with it, and almost 

 as numerous. Its throat and belly, however, are of a pale whitish 

 colour, and the absence of the scarlet spot on the gill cover is an easy 

 means of distinction. These fish are the joy of the youthful angler, 

 and in catching Ihem it is very questionable if the older disciple of the 

 rod bent only on game fish has half the pleasure of the school boy. 



The common Bullhead (Uranidea Cognata) is a small repulsive 

 looking fish very little known from its habit of secluding itself beneath 

 stones in sharp running streams. It seldoms exceeds 2 or 3 inches in 

 length, has a broad, flat head, one-third the length of the body, and 

 furnished with two curved spines. The gape of its moutli is very large, 

 and eyes large and prominent, which give it the appearance of looking 

 upwards. Its body diminishes from the head and becomes compressed 

 towards Ihe tail. The only places where I have met with this fish are 

 in a small stream north of Buckingham, and in the Chelsea trout stream. 

 That they are not abundant is evident from the fact that I do not 

 remember ever taking more than four specimens in the two localities in all 

 my fishing experience there, three of which, if my memory serves me 

 right, were in the Buckingham stream. It is doubtless to be met with 

 around here, but is one of the fish that require looking for, and even 

 then is likely to elude ordinary search. It is not improbable that other 

 species of this family, two of which are tnown in the Korth-West, may 

 be found here, and this is one of the genera that would repay investi- 

 gating. 



The four spined Stickleback {Apelles Quadracus) and the five 

 or six spined Stickleback (Fuccdia Inconstans) are so common in 

 ditches, brooks and ponds, and especially in Lake Flora in Hull, that 

 they are the object of persecution by every unbi-eeched uichin who can 

 procure a crooked pin and a yard or two of thread on a willow twig. 

 A peculiarity of this genus is that they do not deposit their spawn on 

 the bottom like other fish, but actually build a globular nest of water 

 weeds and confervce about the size of a musket ball, balanced or fixed 

 between rushes, or in a tuft of submerged grass or aquatic weeds. Dr. 

 Foitin, in his notes on this fish, says, that the building of the nest is 



