ON A N E S T - B U I L D I N G FISH 

 THE STICKLEBACK (GASTHROSTEUS.) 



BY blliVANUS WILKINS. 



Rcail before the Society, April 12, 1881. 



That a fish could build a uest has been very much doubted, aud 

 eveu uow when believed the fact is supposed to be very rare. In 

 truth it is coninion enough, and as it can be made familiar, so to say. 

 at our own doors, I have thought the subject would not be out of 

 place in a magazine published in Birmingham. The strange part is, 

 that the entire work of preparing the nest, hatching out, fostering and 

 rearing the young, is done by the m.\le. 



The whole process of fish nest-building, by, literally, the hundred, 

 can always be seen from April to July, in the ponds about the 

 " Black Country." The simplest appliances will serve. There is nothing 

 difficult in setting about observing the method of it, either out of doors 

 or in your own homes. Take the train, say — to Bilston —ask for the 

 Theatre in the Willenhall Road, and from the back of it strike into 

 any of the paths across the pit mounds, in a northerly direction, 

 towards Portobello. Before going a thousand yards you will come 

 upon several ponds of various sizes, almost any one of which will do 

 if you go the right way to work. 



There are, however, two or three near together, known as 

 Edward's Pools, or " pewls," as the lads there call them, that are 

 very good. I mention these, being easily found by name, but tliere 

 are many others in the hollows off the main paths that are even 

 better for quiet observation. 



On coming to a pool saunter very slowly, casting your glance into 

 the w'ater about two or three yards ahead of you, near the side, where 

 the water may be from six to twelve inches deep. A very little 

 practice will enable you to see a fish of a brightish green colour 

 quickly turn away from the shallow into deeper water out of 

 sight as you approach. This is the male stickleback of our 

 ponds, and you may now know you have "spotted" a home or 

 nest, though, for a moment, you don't see it. Having marked the 

 place in your eye where the fish sank out of sight, advance slowly 

 directly opposite to the spot, aud sit down on the bank about a yard 

 away from the water, and do not move. In a very short time — a few 

 minutes at the most — you will see my gentleman fish rise from the 

 deeps, end on towards you; a "green-eyed monster of jealousy " of 

 most brilliantly metallic hues. This is the courtship dress with 

 which he has during the preceding few weeks clothed himself. What 



