514 Roosevelt Jf'ild Life A)!iials 



111 Oneida Lake the Miller's Thumb may possibly devour TuUibee eggs which are 

 deposited on rocky shoals. This, however, is a matter for further investigation. 

 References. Bean, '03 : Forbes, '83 ; Forbes and Richardson, '09 ; Gill, '08 ; 

 Greeley, '27; Hankinson, '08, '16; Hahn, 'zy; Hay, '94; Hubbs, "19, '26; Jordan 

 and Evermann, '98; Meek and Clark, '02: Nash, '08; Pearse, '15, '18; Reed and 

 \\"right, '09; Reighard, '15: Smith, '22; Turner, '22; Ward, '11. 



Eucalia inconstans (Kirtland). Brook Stickleback, Common Stickle- 

 back. This is the smallest fish found in the lake (Fig. 202). It is a brook or 

 pond rather than a lake species. The few examples taken were found in very 

 shallow swampy shore waters. 



Breeding Habits and Life History. Sticklebacks are noted for the remark- 

 able nest-building habits of the males. Gill ( '07, p. 494) remarks : "All the stickle- 

 backs take care of their eggs and the newly born young, but it is the male, and 

 not the female, that exercises parental care ; he it is that builds a nest that would 

 do credit to a bird and drives or entices the full female to enter into it and deposit 

 her ripe burden. When a sufficient supply of eggs has been secured, the male 

 closes the nest and remains in charge till the young have reached a size which he 

 considers to be sufficient to enalile them to wander away and seek their own living." 



We have not been able to find any careful, detail account of the nest-building of 

 inconstans. Bean ('03, p. 337) states that "this species is a nest-builder and is 

 vigorous in the defence of its eggs and young," and Eggeling and Ehrenberg ('12, 

 p. 206) say that its habits are like those of allied species. But detailed description 

 ba.sed upon accurate and adequate observations on this particular species appear 

 to be wanting. That it produces masses of a jelly-like substance, similar to that 

 produced by other sticklebacks, has been observed in specimens taken from small 

 muddy ponds at Syracuse, N. Y. From these masses the young fish hatched in 

 April. A mass of eggs, presumably of this species, was taken about May 10, 1915. 

 and others were taken in the spring of 1921. They were about an inch in diameter 

 and contained yellow eggs about one millimeter in diameter. 



Barker ('18, p. 526) made a study of the lireeding of this sjjecies at Ithaca. 

 New York. The males were bright in color, having a veiling of black over an 

 olive-green ground color which lightens to yellow on the belly. The females were 

 somewhat lighter in color. Nesting was begun in water of 40°-50° F, in the 

 shallow margins of a pool, in April and May. The nest is always built of materials 

 at hand, such as fine fibers, blades of dead grass, green algae and the like and is 

 consequently incdii^picunUN. The material is loosely woven together and held in 

 place by a secretion of the kidneys of the inale, which hardens into a thread upun 

 contact with the water. He describes them as delicate little structures, -pherical 

 in shape, about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, with ;i Imle nu mie side ,nid 

 fastened to some submerged object like a rootlet or grass blade. 



The male fish remains on guard to protect the nest until after the vduii- have 

 hatched. Dr. Barker did not find the fish building in aquaria, but a ni.ile which 

 he saw guarding its nest in a pond was captured and with its nest was brought to 

 an aquarium, where the fish continued to guard the nest. The eggs were found by 

 Barker to be almost one millimeter in diameter and transparent and light \-elli)wish 



