146 



THE AQUARIUM, JANUARY, 1895. 



our pet's spine upon his neighbor's 

 stomachs, their eyes picked out as deli- 

 cate morsels for his morning meal. 

 This, therefore, must be a warning to 

 you ; if you have but one jar, and wish 

 to keejD sticklebacks you will probably 

 not have an opportunity of keeping 

 any other fish, of his own size at least. 

 " But he will repay you for his dis- 

 position. He has all the ways of other 

 fishes, and many more besides. Look 

 into your tank — see, there is one 

 larger than the rest; he is clothed in a 

 coat of mail, like a knight of old, and 

 it is resplendant with purple and gold. 



eggs, and having done this, resigns the 

 care of them to our hero of the purple 

 and gold, who watches over them with 

 an anxiety that no other male in 

 creation but the male stickleback seems 

 to know. He fans and freshens the 

 water with his fins, and at last, when the 

 young are hatched, watches over their 

 attempt at swjmming with the greatest 

 anxiety. Nor is this habit confined to 

 the fresh water sticklebacks. A lady, 

 writing to me from Aberdeen, and de- 

 scribing her aquarium says : ' A fifteen- 

 spined stickleback [Gasterosteus spin- 

 ach ea) constructed a nest on a piece of 



The Two-Spined Stickleback. 



See how his eye glisten, and with every 

 movement present a new color. He is 

 a male fish, the king of your little 

 shoal. He has important offices to 

 perform. Presently, in the course of 

 a few days if you watch him, and are 

 fortunate, you will see this wonderful 

 little fish engaged in the most useful 

 manner in building a nest. He first 

 seizes hold of one little bit of weed, 

 then of another, and carries them all 

 to "some safe corner, till at last his 

 nest is built. Having done this, he 

 gently allures his mate to their new 

 made home. Here she deposits her 



rock, which was covered with a fine 

 green seaweed, and laced altogether 

 with a long thread, composed, api)ar- 

 ently, of some secretion. The fish 

 afterwards, for about the space of 

 three weeks, watched the nest, never 

 leaving it at all, save for the purpose 

 of driving away other fish, when they 

 approached too near. When a stick 

 was introduced into the vicinity of the 

 nest, the fish would fly, open-mouthed, 

 to attack it, and would bite it with 

 great apparent fury. At the expira- 

 tion of the above named time, the 

 young fry made their appearance by 



