226 LOCH CRERAN. 



at half tide and low water. This was very near the same 

 place that we once obtained a similar fish from the mouth 

 of a guillemot, and is additional evidence to prove that 

 these birds really dive down 10 fathoms in search of prey. 

 A i5-spined stickleback likewise came up from 10 or 12 

 fathoms, but did not long survive its transfer to the tub. 

 We have always found these to be most sensitive, nervous 

 fishes, and unable, either from fear or a demand for ex- 

 cessive aeration, to stand carrying about. A peculiarity 

 of this fish that we do not recollect noting in any other 

 is the facility with which it can swim straight back. You 

 will constantly see them advancing inquiringly, and then, 

 as if alarmed or dissatisfied, shoot straight back. This 

 is performed mainly by a peculiar circular movement of 

 the pectorals, always a marked peculiarity of this fish, 

 which "handles" them with seeming dexterity. The 

 nervous-like jerk with which they dart back or shoot for- 

 ward, their intelligent skill as nestbuilders, and their 

 watchful care of their young, as well as the large eyes 

 and head, all point to this as a fish whose intelligence is 

 worthy of more attention, and one well qualified to be 

 experimented upon in respect of natural capacity, capa- 

 bility of education, and comparative constitution of the 

 principal nervous ganglia as against terrestrial and aerial 

 creatures. Still another fishy inhabitant of our tub 

 appears in the amusing shape of a small lump-sucker 

 ( Cyclopterus lumpus), the first of the kind we have met 

 with us, and a very small specimen he is exactly one 

 inch in length, but with all the unmistakable peculiarities 

 of the parents, even to the general rich blue tint, the eyes 

 being quite remarkably bright. 



Most of those who have visited the sea-shore are well 

 acquainted with the pretty little cowrie, perhaps the most 



