MA Y MUSES 93 



and determines to retire, you can see short, jerky 

 movements of the spines, as though their owner 

 were thinking, " Wouldn't I like to, if I dared ! " 

 In February or in March, according to the for- 

 wardness of the season, the sticklebacks leave the 

 deep waters in which they have been secluded 

 throughout the cold, and seek the shallows. But 

 as yet they keep under the banks, and they are all 

 of the same hues dusky-green on the back and 

 silvery white beneath. Spring advances, and the 

 males become pugnacious and strike at each other 

 with their spines, and chase and bite the females 

 and the young of the preceding year ; and they 

 begin to have a reddish streak beneath the gills. 

 The stronger males take possession of little nooks 

 and corners near the edge of the water, whence 

 they drive all other sticklebacks, and soon the 

 extent of these appropriated areas becomes clearly 

 understood, until, in April or early May, each vic- 

 torious male has his little home or property, the 

 size of which is generally determined by the num- 

 ber of the fish in the vicinity. In some localities 

 each fish may own two square yards or more, and 

 in others not more than two square feet. The 



