Miscellaneous. 44D 



specimen seems at least to make another link between the Antheadce 

 and Bunodidce. The Anemone still lives in the possession of Mr. 

 Mundie. 



I have had to change my opinion about the quantities of Aiptasice 

 around these islands. Their very great number soon made me think 

 that I had been mistaken. I sent some specimens to Mr. Gosse, and he 

 imagined them to be Aiptasice, but they did not recover the journey 

 sufficiently for him to be sure about it. I have had no accommodation 

 for them to disport themselves fully, and consequently I was misled 

 by a general resemblance. I must conclude now, that though there 

 are probably Aiptasice to be found here, yet they certainly do not 

 exist in the numbers I imagined, but I have mistaken the grey 

 Anthece for them. I hope you will enter this in your 'Annals' as 

 soon as possible, lest Anemone-fanciers should be tempted to our 

 distant retreat by false hopes. 



St. Mary's Parsonage, Isles of Scilly, Sincerely yours, 



"November 4, 1865. D. P. Alford. 



On the Nest of the Ten-spined Stickleback. 

 By W. H. Ransom, M.D. 



Although it has long been known that the three-spined and fif- 

 teen-spined Sticklebacks build nests — the former on the ground, and 

 the latter among weeds — no one has yet described, so far as I am 

 aware*, the nest of the ten-spined Stickleback, or Gasterosteus pun- 

 gitius, so common in our ditches, and well known by the name of 

 Tinker, from the black nuptial livery of the male. I was fortunate 

 enough, in 1854, to have a nest built by a little Tinker in my aqua- 

 rium, and I found that its position resembled that of the fifteen- 

 spined species. Last spring I was able more carefully to witness 

 this interesting fact. On May 1st, 1864, a fine black male G. pun- 

 gitius was put into a well-established aquarium of moderate size, in 

 which he soon became at home, but did not build any nest for three 

 days. I then supplied him with two ripe females of the same spe- 

 cies. Their presence at once roused him to activity, and he soon 

 began to build a nest of bits of dirt and dead fibre and of growing con- 

 fervoid filaments, upon a jutting point of rock among some interla- 

 cing branches of Myriophyllum spicatum — all the time, however, 

 frequently interrupting his labours to pay his addresses to the females. 

 This was done in most vigorous fashion, the male fish swimming, by 

 a series of rapid little jerks, near and about the female, and even 

 pushing against her with open mouth, but usually not biting. After 

 a little coquetting, if she be ripe, she responds and follows him, swim- 

 ming just above him as he leads the way to the nest. When there, 

 the tables are turned, the gentleman now coquets, he seems not to 



* Since my paper was read, I have discovered that Sir. Charles Strange 

 described the'nest of the Tinker in ' Once a Week,' vol. i. p. 145. There 

 is also a figure accompanying the communication, but that appears to be 

 the nest of the three-spined Stickleback. Mr. Couch, in his ' History of 

 British Fishes,' now in course of publication, remarks that he has never 

 seen the nest of the Tinker. 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. xvi. 30 



