OE, THE HOME-CULTUBE OF FEESH-WATEE PLANTS. 



ing the apparently insufficient means which their 

 formation has furnished them for the edification of 

 such structures, appears very extraordinary, and yet, 

 if our means of observation presented greater facili- 

 ties, many more species of fish might be found to be 

 constructors of complicated nests, than those which 

 are as yet known to possess that instinct. The veil 

 of the waters, however, which screens their habits 

 so effectually from us, renders discovery in this 

 direction exceedingly slow. 



Till M. Coste read his interesting paper, on The 

 Nidification of the Stickleback, the other day, at the 

 French Academy, modern naturalists, speaking 

 generally, may be said to have been ignorant of 

 this peculiarity in any species of fishes, as no pub- 

 lished details had appeared. It had been singu- 

 larly overlooked by them that Aristotle, above 2000 

 years ago, had stated that a certain little fish had 

 the habit of constructing a nest like that of a bird. 



Clive, it is true, among modern naturalists, had 

 asserted that the Black Gobie built a nest, and it is 

 now thought that this is the same fish alluded to by 

 Aristotle. Major Harding had also stated that the 

 Gourami, an Indian fish, constructed a kind of nest ; 

 but no accurate details upon the subject were made 

 known before the publication of the interesting 



