84 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 



a few yellow eggs, and bores her way out through the 

 wall at the opposite end, thus creating a back door to the 

 premises. Then the husband enters and pays the necessary 

 attention to what she has left behind, and the rest of the 

 day is spent in the usual occupation of combat and quest 

 of food. 



Next morning the same process is repeated ; but, if we are 

 to accept the evidence of close observers, not always with the 

 same lady. The private morals of great soldiers and sailors 

 (and the stickleback combines the attributes of both) are not 

 always exemplary : provided the master of this queer little 

 house can get the full complement of eggs stored therein — 

 sixty to eighty, says Von Siebold — he is not very scrupulous 

 about whom he can induce to lay them. Once the tale is 

 complete, he dismisses his harem and builds up both doors, 

 remarking, as he does so, " No admission except on business, 

 and nobody has any business on my premises." Then he 

 takes up his station outside, truculently driving away all 

 intruders, and especially careful not to allow the mothers of 

 his family to interfere with his charge, knowing, probably, 

 that they could not be trusted with each other's eggs. Every 

 now and then he pulls out a hole in the nest and enters him- 

 self, just to see that everything is correct. The length of his 

 vigil is from ten to thirty days, according to the temperature 

 of the water. When the swarm of tiny sticklebacks begin to 

 escape from the eggs, the male parent assumes sole charge of 

 them. The mother or mothers are goodness knows where — 

 attending race-meetings, no doubt, playing bridge, or slum- 

 ming in the East-end, whatever may be the subaqueous 

 equivalents to such pursuits, according to their different 

 temperaments. It is the father unaided who runs the nursery, 

 catching food for the little ones, and masticating it himself 

 before he puts it before them. For the first week or so after 

 hatching he keeps his offspring closely confined in the nest ; 

 then, when they are three or four millimetres in length, he 



