CHAPTER II 

 SOME FISH NOTES 



THE THREE-SPINED STICKLEBACK 



THE Three-spined Stickleback (Gasterosteus acule- 

 atus] is a sprightly, pugnacious, and sturdy little 

 fellow, game every inch of him, more especially in 

 the early summer months, when he is dressed in his nuptial 

 attire of blue, yellow, and red, and when those " amiable and 

 intense feelings," as Couch aptly terms them, " are stirred 

 into exercise," and the cares of a family devolve upon him. 

 What fun then it is, as one lies sprawled on the grassy margin 

 of a ditch, watching him darting hither and thither in the 

 neighbourhood of his precious nest, now driving from its 

 vicinity, with spines erect and rigid, and glaring eyes, those 

 whom he deems intruders on his domains, and now returning 

 hurriedly to inspect his premises in order to satisfy himself 

 that nothing has happened while his back was turned. 



And yet it is just at this period that the human urchin, 

 elate with spring's invigorating impulses, most mercilessly 

 pursues and persecutes him, dragging broken baskets, hung 

 on many-knotted pieces of twine, right through his domains, 

 like so many devastating trawl-nets, and bringing him kicking 

 and protesting to the bank with the tangled and bedraggled 

 debris of his hopes and ambitions heaped around him. Your 

 urchin scarcely gives it a thought that Master " Redbreast's " 

 existence was designed otherwise than to be subservient to his 

 whims and fancies ; and with what eagerness does he, after 

 the wild drag and upheaval of the weed-clogged trawl, 

 pounce on the silvery little kicker and drop him, not perhaps 

 without a pricked finger, into the big-mouthed pickle bottle 

 that was clandestinely lifted from the cupboard shelf at 

 home! The stickleback does not tamely submit to close 

 imprisonment with a host of fellow unfortunates without 

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