HOMERIC COMBATS 



things, and who find these fishes very interesting for several 

 reasons. 



The Three-spined Stickleback, or " Jack-sharp," is the 

 commonest kind, though the ten-spined species, which is 

 popularly known in some districts as the " Tinker,' 1 is also 

 very plentiful. The Jack -sharp's body is very thin, as 

 though it had been squeezed on both sides, and ends in a 

 tail which is not forked, but spreads out like a fan. Its 

 back and sides are armed with exceedingly sharp spines, 

 which lie close against the body when their owner is 

 undisturbed, but stick out and look very terrible indeed 

 when he thinks he is in danger. He is a hot-tempered 

 little fellow; when he is at rest he glistens as though he 

 were covered with quicksilver, but if you annoy him ever 

 so little he becomes red with anger, then turns pale, then 

 purple, in the most surprising way. You can see these 

 changes particularly well if you place two male stickle- 

 backs in the same aquarium. The single combats in which 

 they engage are Homeric, and it would require the aged 

 Poet himself to narrate all the varying fortunes and all 

 the changing aspects of the combatants, from the dull 

 green of the vanquished to the brilliant purple of the 

 victor. The most interesting thing of all, however, is the 

 way in which the stickleback looks after the safety of his 

 offspring. Curiously enough, it is the male who attends to 

 this matter; the mother, contrary to what we find in the case 

 of so many animals, troubles very little about it. 



When a male stickleback is tired of living all alone and 

 thinks he would like to have a family, you may see him 

 swimming about in every direction in a restless manner, as 

 if he were seeking something. What he is trying to find 

 is nothing more nor less than a suitable place to build a 

 nest. When he has discovered one, he fetches in his mouth 

 G ioi 



