94 NATURES STORY OF THE YEAR 



boundaries are not settled without many, almost 

 incessant, contests ; and, from the number of dead 

 sticklebacks to be found at this season, it seems 

 that many a brave little fish receives a fatal wound 

 while fighting. But I have never seen one actually 

 receive a serious injury in this way, and in my 

 boyhood I must have spent hundreds of hours 

 watching these fish, both in aquaria and in their 

 native streams and ponds. Each fish soon learns 

 the distance to which he can approach another 

 without risk of being immediately attacked, and 

 at what point he must hazard a battle in defence 

 of his own property. It is easy to see that they 

 know to an inch where the imaginary boundary 

 lies ; and the fish that flies from another, on whose 

 domain he was trespassing, will turn directly he 

 has attained this distance, fully prepared to resist 

 any further pursuit. The victor also recognises 

 this fact, and generally desists from the chase 

 directly the fugitive has gained his own quarters. 

 Sometimes one busily occupied in tending its nest 

 will be unexpectedly attacked by another, who, 

 seeing the enemy busy, and not on the alert, will 

 try to get home one blow before the other has 



