122 - FISH HARVESTING. 
eyes glow with fury, the colours decking his 
scaly armour intensify, and flash with a kind of 
phosphorescent brightness, until the diminutive 
gladiator looks the impersonation of rage and 
fury; but as we cultivate his acquaintance, and 
gain a better knowledge of his real character, 
we shall discover that his quarrelsome disposi- 
tion is not so much attributable to a morose 
temper, and a love of fighting for fighting’s sake, 
as to a higher and more praiseworthy principle. 
No amount of thinking would lead one to 
imagine that his pugnacity arises from intense 
parental affection: a love of offspring, scarcely 
having a parallel in the living world, prompting 
him to risk his life, and spend a great deal of his 
time in constantly-recurring paroxysms of fury 
and sanguinary conflicts, in which it often happens 
that one or more of the combatants gets ripped 
open or mortally stabbed with the formidable 
spines arming the back. Skill in stickleback 
battles appears to consist in rapidly diving under 
an adversary, then as suddenly rising, and driving 
the spines into his sides and stomach. The little 
furies swim round and round, their noses tightly 
jammed together ; but the moment one gets his 
nose the least bit under that of his foe, then he 
plies his fins with all his might, and forcing 
