The Stickleback.'] OF ORKNEY. 217 



in some the whole belly is of the latter colour, in others only 

 the lower jaws. 



The spines are rough, with small prickles along their edges, 

 moveable by strong muscles. 



Species 2. The Fifteen Spined Stickleback. 



Aculeatus marinus major, Schonveldi, Sib. Scot. 24, tab. 19, fig. 2. Idem. 

 Wil. Icth. 340. App. 23. Raii Syn. Pise. 145. Gasterosteus Spinachia, 

 Lin. Sys. 492. Brit. Zool. 220. Brit. Zool. Illus. tab. 42. Ore. Bismore. 



FOUND very frequent in the sea ; has its Orkney name from 

 the kind of balance here made use of, called Bismores. 



The mouth is a long snout ; the rictus small ; the eye large, 

 as in all in the kind ; the body, which in some specimens is 

 six inches long, is covered with hard crusty scales, pretty thick 

 to the vent, when it grows very small to the tail, for about an 

 inch or more before which it is square. 



From the back of the head runs a row of fifteen spines, to 

 the beginning of the back-fin : the back and anal fins are op- 

 posite to one another ; no ventral fins. In my drawings of 

 this fish are two small spines placed opposite to one another 

 instead of these, and a single one before the anal fin ; the tail 

 is even at the end. 



The colour of the body, to the side line, is brown, or, in 

 young ones, green ; the belly white. 



These fishes enter into no part of our economy, they are too 



6 



