232 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



The common Stickle-back* (Gasterosteus, Fig. 187) of our 



Fig. 187. STICKLE-BACK. 



streams seems to be provided with a weapon, 

 which to its opponents would prove no less 

 formidable. At the lower surface of the 

 body, it has a stiff, sharp spine, which can 

 be erected at pleasure, and so firmly that 

 it may be said, in military phrase, to " fix 

 bayonets."! The Stickle-back is an irritable 

 and pugnacious little fellow; and with this 

 bayonet of his has been seen to rip up the 

 belly of an unfortunate antagonist, so that 

 he sank to the bottom and died of his 

 wound. 



An active species of Shark has the teeth 

 within its mouth small and obtuse, and 

 wholly inadequate to destroy the prey on 

 which it subsists; but this deficiency is 

 compensated by a singular and formidable 

 weapon, with strong lateral teeth with 

 which the front of the head is provided. 

 Its saw-like edge has gained for its owner 

 the appropriate name of Saw-fish (Pristis, 

 Fig. 188). 



The Sword-fish (Xipliias gladius] has 

 occasionally been taken upon the British 

 coasts, and is furnished with a weapon, 

 more formidable than perhaps any other 

 species. Daniel, in his "Rural Sports," 

 states that a man while bathing in the 

 Severn, was struck by, and actually received 

 Fig. 188. SAW-FISH, his death-wound from a Sword-fish. The 



* Called Sprittle~bag in the North of Ireland Pinkeen in the South, 

 f Drummond's Letters to a Young Naturalist. 



