248 THREE-SPINED STICKLEBACK. 



the most delicate of fish. In the months of August and 

 September it is considered to be in highest season. The 

 females, in spawning, generally deposit their eggs near 

 the mouths of rivers. 



Instances have occurred of these fish weighing as much 

 as fifteen pounds and upwards. They have two dorsal 

 fins, of which the first consists of nine strong, spiny rays, 

 and the second of one spiny ray and thirteen soft ones. 

 Each gill-cover terminates in a sharp point. The back 

 of the Basse is dusky, tinged with blue ; and the belly is 

 white. 



11. STICKLEBACK TRIBE. 



None of the Sticklebacks are of large size, and some 

 of them are very small. There are about thirteen known 

 species. 



Three-spined Stickleback. There are few fish so small, 

 and, at the same time so acii^, as these. They are sel- 

 dom so much as two inches in length, and yet one of 

 them, kept in a glass, has been known in five hours to 

 devour as many as seventy-four young dace, each an inch 

 or upwards in length, and of about the thickness of a 

 horse-hair. Notwithstanding the smallness of their size, 

 these fish are sometimes so numerous that they are obliged 

 to colonize, and leave their native places in search of 

 new haunts. Once in every seven or eight years they 

 appear in the river Welland, in Lincolnshire, in such 

 amazing shoals, as to form a vast body, occupying the 

 whole width of the river. When this happens, they are 

 caught for the purpose of being used as manure for the 

 land ; and an idea may be formed of their numbers, when 

 it is stated that one man, employed by a farmer to catch 



