OH A NEST-BUILDING FISH. Ill 



colour, leaving a small space clear through which to watch him 

 at work. This is almost necessary, for if they see they are over- 

 looked, they, like some other animals, are apt to devour their own 

 offspring, hatching them out merely to swallow them as tit-bits. 

 Feeding him with a small worm every few days helps to check his 

 voracity. 



In placing the nest in position, arrange it to lie in the hollow of the 

 clinker or stone, about the same depth at which you found it in the 

 water, as much like its proper form as you can, keeping the eggs under 

 the conferva-framework of the nest, as little exposed as possible. This, 

 however, does not so much matter, as the bold fellow when you intro- 

 duce him to the water, after swimming about for a time, as soon as he 

 finds the dwelling with its future family, will set to work at once to 

 put it in order. This is very interesting. To help him to do this, a 

 little of the conferva from the same pool should be added for materials. 

 We are told the name of this " genus " is Gasterosteus, meaning 

 spine-belly, presumably, I suppose scientifically, because its spines 

 are chiefly on its back. 



All the fresh-water species described, some six, are to be found in 

 this locality, but there is one I have not seen specially distinguished any- 

 where. This is a fellow nearly black, which certainly I would su_\ 

 ought, from his surroundings, to be called the "collier," or may be, 

 the li white-eyed Kaffre." 



I have limited the paper to a few practical notes, helping, I hope, 

 to the history proper of this strange little fish. I shall be glad if it 

 induces any unpractised naturalists to observe and picture more 

 fully his wonderful gifts and display of moods, affections, and senti- 

 ments, so much like our own. 



There are many pools here undisturbed for years by cattle foot or 

 banking up that are very rich in other pond life, but the Mines Drainage 

 Commissioners are rapidly altering the face of parts. 



Max Midler, in his " Manners and Customs," describes the practice 

 of the Basques, that in Biscay the women rise immediately after 

 child-birth, while the husband goes to bed, taking the baby with him : 

 aud he mentions how Mr. Tylor, in his researcnes into the develop- 

 ment of civilisation, seems to despair of the existence of any custom 

 anywhere which cannot be matched somewhere else, and he ask 

 this a natural custom "? Well, certainly, we have it well matched here, 

 and may say it is a custom entirely natural to some fish. If man is a 

 microcosm of nature, the complete counterpart or prototype of the 

 practice is certainly found in the Stickleback of our ponds. 



If this mid-husbandry was the practice in the early history of 

 mankind, as he states, and it be probable, as we sometimes hear, that 

 mankind will revert, in the second childhood of the race, to like ways. 

 there may be some comfort to the strong-minded of the other sex in 

 the prospect that ultimately the males of the future must return 

 to the duties of the nursery. 



