CHAPTER XVI. 



THOKNIES AND TINKERS. 



" A little fish called a sticklebay, without scales, hath his body fenced 

 with several prickles." LSAAK WALTON. 



THE little fishes which, in the western part of England 

 where I write, are called Thornies, or, to give the name its 

 true ring, Tharnies, are known in other parts by other 

 names Tittlebats, Titlers, Jack Sharps, and so forth. A 

 writer in the Youth's Instructor (1834) terms them Prickle- 

 fish. Those who are beyond the reach of dialect know 

 them as Three-spined Stickle-backs. While the learned 

 honour them with the style and title G aster osteus aculcatus. 



They are really charming little fellows. I scarcely know 

 a brighter and saucier object in the whole realm of animate 

 nature than a male Thornie who has donned his nuptial 

 attire. So self-satisfied does he look, that one wonders 

 how so much pride can become incarnate in but three 

 short inches of body. "And have I not just cause?" he 

 seems to say. " There are many bigger fishes than I (he 

 does not deem it necessary to add that, save his cousin, the 

 Tinker, there lives not in English fresh waters a smaller) ; 

 there may be some who are nearly as handsome. But 

 show me another," he says, boldly generalizing like other 

 little folk from his own somewhat limited experience, 



