STICKLEBACKS. 121 
‘CHAPTER V. 
STICKLEBACKS AND THEIR NESTS—-THE BULLHEAD—THE ROCK- 
COD—THE CHIRUS—FLATFISH. 
Tuer genus Cottorde (fish having mailed cheeks) 
has a great many representatives, common on 
Vancouver Island and the British Columbian 
coasts. The least of the family, the’stickleback, is 
so singularly different from most other fishes 
in its habits, as to merit the first consideration. 
In the months of July and August it would 
be difficult to find a stream, large or small, 
swift or slow, lake, pool, or muddy estuary, 
east and west of the Cascade Mountains, that 
has not in it immense shoals of that most 
irritable and pugnacious little fish the stickle- 
back, ever ready on the slightest provocation to 
engage in a battle. Let friend or foe but rub 
against his royal person, or come nearer his pri- 
vate subaqueous garden than he deems consis- 
tent with safety or good behaviour, in a moment 
the spines are erected like spear-points, the tiny 
