THE THREE-SPINED STICKLEBACK. 287 



Pennant's remarks Habits Time of spawning. 



by a farmer to catch them, got, for some time, 

 four shillings a day by selling them at a half- 

 penny a bushel. Mr. Pennant informs us, their 

 appearance in those parts is not annual, like that 

 of the herring or mackrel, but takes place after 

 an interval of seven or eight years. The cause 

 of these periodical visits is conjectured to be, the 

 vast quantities which have bred in the interme- 

 diate time upon some of the adjacent shoals or 

 banks, where (small as they are) rinding them- 

 selves straitened for room, immense colonies are 

 dispatched from the mother-settlement in search 

 of a more commodious habitation. 



The great exertions they use, in getting from 

 one place to another, where obstacles intervene, 

 are very extraordinary ; for, though the largest 

 among them is seldom known to be more than 

 two inches in length, they have been seen to 

 spring a foot and a half (nine times their own 

 length) in perpendicular height from the surface 

 of the water, and in an oblique direction much 

 farther. 



These fish spawn in April and June on the 

 aquatic plants; they multiply very fast, but 

 are very short-lived, scarcely ever attaining the 

 third year. They are too small, and perhaps 

 too bony, to be of any essential service as food 

 to mankind. 



