60 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



sticklebacks, male and female ; the females big with spawn : some 

 lamperns ; some bulls heads ; but I could procure no minnows.* 

 This basket will be in Fleet-street by eight this evening ; so I 

 hope Mazel will have them fresh and fair to-morrow morning. I 

 gave some directions, in a letter, to what particulars the engraver 

 should be attentive. 



Finding, while I was on a visit, that I was within a reasonable 

 distance of Ambresbury, I sent a servant over to that town, and 

 procured several living specimens of loaches, which he brought, 

 safe and brisk, in a glass decanter. They were taken in the 

 gullies that were cut for watering the meadows. From these 

 fishes (which measured from two to four inches in length) I took 



The common stickleback (G. aculeatus of Linnaeus), certain varieties of which (in the opinion 

 of Mr. Jenyns) are figured and described in Mr. Yarrell's work by the names G- trachurus, Cuv., 

 semiarmatus, Cuv., leiurus, Cuv., and br achy cent r us, Cuv. ? occurs in every clear ditch and pond, 

 and is too well known to require much description. It has three erectible dorsal spines, more or 

 less serrated, and varying somewhat in length in different specimens, the second, however, being 

 always longest, and the third much shorter than the two others ; also a stout and serrated erect- 

 ible spine on each side of the abdomen, which is a modification of the ventral fin, as the others 

 are of the first dorsal ; sides more or less defended with horny plates, which vary very consider- 

 ably in number ; the sides of the tail furnished in some with a horizontal expansion of the skin 

 forming a keel. 



G. spinulosus (Varrell and Jenyns), differs in no essential particular from the last, excepting in 

 being smaller, and having an additional dorsal spine, situate half-way between the second and 

 third of the ordinary ones. This spine is very small, and even shorter than that which precedes 

 the soft dorsal fin ; none of the spines are serrated. It was discovered by Dr. Jtark in some plenty 

 near Edinburgh, and, as Mr. Jenyns remarks, is "possibly a mere variety of the last species, 

 which is said to have been numerous in the same pond." 



The ten-spined stickleback (G- pwng-iHus) , which Mr. White failed to discover about Selborne, 

 is however, an obviously distinct species, tolerably common all over the country, though nowhere 

 (so far as I have observed) quite so abundant as the G- aculeatus, than which it is rather mort 

 confined to running water. It is also of a longer make, and differs essentially in wanting the 

 lateral scaly plates, though it possesses the triangular one on the belly; the dorsal spines are 

 nine or ten in number (the latter, in all that I have ever examined), of eqnal length, and much 

 shorter than in the G. aculeatus, and when erect inclining alternately somewhat to the right and 

 left ; the ventral spines are smooth, tail mostly cariuated. Both the G- aculcatus and G< pungitiut 

 are found occasionally in the sea, where also is another and very long-shaped British species, 

 with fifteen spines, now constituting a distinct sub-genus, spinachia ; the latter only occurs in 

 salt water. 



The sticklebacks are very lively and active .little fishes, and prey voraciously on worms, tad- 

 poles, and aquatic insects. They spawn in July and August, depositing but a small number of 

 ova; are very pugnacious, more particularly the G- aculeatus, which, in confinement, will attack 

 and nibble off the fins of other and much larger fishes that are kept with it in the same vessel. 

 An amusing account of the quarrelsome propensities of the male during the spawning season is 

 given in the Magazine of Natural History, all of which I can corroborate from repeated observa- 

 tions, premising that it is the male only that acquires the glowing colours. The very short space 

 of time in which the upper parts of these tiny fishes assimulate in hue to the colour of the vessel 

 in which they are placed is not a little curious and remarlcable. ED. 



* The minnow-roach is the lenciscus phoxinus of naturalists, a little well-known fish, much 

 used by anglers, about three or four inches long. It is common in rivers, more especially those 

 with a gravelly bottom, and keeps in shoals, subsisting on insects, worms, and aquatic plants. 

 Spawns early in summer, at which season the head is covered with small tubercles, and the under 

 parts of the male (as in the common stickleback) turn to a beautiful and rich crimson. ED. 



