NEST OF THE TEN-SPINED STICKLEBACK. 



V 



I WAS much interested by the account given in 

 a late number of LAND AND WATER of the habits of 

 sticklebacks during the spawning season, and as 

 your correspondent states that he has not observed 

 the ten-spined species (G aster osteus pungitius) while 

 forming its nest, I beg to offer him a slight 

 account of a nest built by this industrious little 

 fish in my aquarium in May, 1865. I procured a 

 male and several females that evidently contained 

 ova in the process of formation, and placed them 

 in an oblong tank well supplied with fine shingle 

 and aquatic plants. The male of this species is dis- 

 tinguished by the deep black colour of the throat 

 and gill-covers, and on that account is sometimes 

 called "tinker" by the country people in Hertford- 

 shire. On the 15th of May the male began to 

 form a nest of pieces of the leaves of Anachdrtc 

 alsinastrum, and of the feathery fronds of the watei 

 crowfoot. The situation he chose was on an irregu- 



