394 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



water in a net, and the eggs thrown into the stream, the Stickle- 

 backs rush at them from all sides, and fight for them like boys 

 scrambling for halfpence. The eggs are very small, barely the 

 size of dust-shot, and are yellow when first placed in the nest, but 

 deepen in color as they approach maturity. 



There is a well-known marine species of this group, called the 

 Fifteen -spined Stickleback {Gasterosteus spinachia), a long- 

 bodied, long-snouted fish, with a slightly projecting lower jaw, 

 and a row of fifteen short and sharp spines along the back. This 

 creature makes its nest of the smaller algae, such as the corallines, 

 and the delicate green and purple sea-weeds which fringe our 

 coasts. 



Sometimes, indeed, it becomes rather eccentric in its architect- 

 ure, and builds in very curious situations. Mr. Couch, the well- 

 known ichthyologist, mentions a case where a pair of Sticklebacks 

 had made their nest "in the loose end of a rope, from which the 

 separated strands hung out about a yard from the surface, over a 

 depth of four or five fathoms, and to which the materials could 

 only have been brought, of course, in the mouth of the fish, from 

 the distance of about thirty feet. T^hey were formed of the usual 

 aggregation of the finer sorts of green and red sea- weed, but they 

 were so matted together in the hollow formed by the untwisted 

 strands of the rope that the mass constituted an oblong ball of 

 nearly the size of the fist, in which had been deposited the scat- 

 tered assemblage of spawn, and which was bound into shape with 

 a thread of animal substance, which was passed through and 

 through in various directions, while the rope itself formed an out- 

 side covering to the whole." 



This is not the only fish that is known to construct a nest. 



In the fresh waters of tropical America there is a genus of fish 

 belonging to the Siluridse, and named Callichthys, from the beauty 

 of the species. The fishes of this genus have four very long bar- 

 bules hanging from the upper lip and pointing backward, and are 

 all mailed except part of the belly. Their general color is green- 

 brown, and they do not reach to any great size, eight inches be- 

 ing their usual length. They are generally very fat, and are much 

 valued by the natives of Guiana, who live so much upon fish. 

 The native name for this fish is Hassar, and the European resi- 

 dents call it the Hardback, in allusion to its coat of shining mail. 



