250 ARCHITECTURE OF SEA STICKLEBACK'S NEST. 



Wick, for a stickleback's nest. It was found near the 

 celebrated Wick Harbour by his youngest daughter and 

 himself on the Queen's birthday, 1880. Of this beau- 

 tiful nest I thus wrote in Land and Water : — 



"I now present to my readers a drawing of one of the 

 most wonderful curiosities that exists in the waters of 

 the great Ocean. Man in his boasted wisdom often 

 produces works of art which would seem almost to be 

 the result, to use an Homeric expression, of God-like 

 inspiration, and yet behold now before you a work of 

 art which far exceeds in beauty and complexity any- 

 thing that ever was thought of by the human mind. 



" This object is the nest of a stickleback. It has 

 pleased the Creator to ordain that a poor, humble sea- 

 fish should be the architect of this wonderful nest. 

 These little fish have but feeble tools wherewith to 

 execute this work, combining in itself the highest 

 problems of Science and Art. 



"Underneath or at the edge of a secluded rock, and 

 generally at a point out of the reach of the violent wash 

 of the tideway, the stickleback selects an overhanging 

 branch of sea-plants which shall act as a foundation for 

 its nest. It is not, I believe, known whether the stickle- 

 back collects or carries together (as does a bird) the 

 materials wherewith to make its nest, or whether the 

 stickleback simply utilises the branches of the plants 

 which happen to be near each other. On examining 

 the actual structure of the nest, I am inclined to think 

 that the stickleback takes both these courses; certainly 

 the foundation of the stronger ropes, as it were, of the 

 scaffold which forms the outside of the nest, have been 

 carefully selected by design on the part of the builder. 



" The main body of the nest is formed of very soft 

 weed — in fact, as soft as sponge — and, strange to say. 



