216 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



The common Stickle-back * (Gasterosteus, Fig. 187) c f our 



// 



n 



Fig. 187.— Stickle-Back. 



streams seems to be provided with a weapon, 

 which to its opponents would prove no less 

 formidable. At the lower surface of the 

 body, it has a stiff, sharp spine, which can 

 be erected at pleasure, and so firmly that 

 it may be said, in mihtary phrase, to "fix 

 bayonets, "t The Stickle-back is an ii-ritable 

 and pugnacious Httle fellow; and with this 

 bayonet of his has been seen to rip up the 

 belly of an unfortunate antagonist, so that 

 he sank to the bottom and died of his 

 wound. 



An active species of Shark has the teeth 

 within its mouth small and obtuse, and whoUy 

 inadequate to destroy the prey on which it 

 subsists ; but this deficiency is compensated 

 by a singular and formidable weapon, with 

 strong lateral projections, with which the 

 front of the head is provided. Its saw-like 

 edge has gained for its owner the appropriate 

 name of Saw-fish (Pn'stis, Fig. 18S). 



The Sword-fish {Xiphias gladius) has 

 occasionally been taken upon the British 

 coasts, and is furnished with a weapon, more 

 formidable than perhaps any other s})ecies. 

 Daniel, in his " Eural Sports," states that a 

 man while bathing in the Severn, was struck 

 by, and actually received his death-wound 

 from a Sword-fish. The elongated upper 

 Kig.n88.— Saw-fish, jaw {Fig. 189) forms the sword, which is fre- 



* Called Spritile-hag, or spi-ickhj-bag, in the North of lrc\a.nA—Pinkeen 

 in the South. 



t Drumraond's Letters to a Young Naturalist. 



