No. 144.] 323 



leave the nest. If one gets away, he immediately goes after it 

 and brings it bacli in his mouth; sometimes he is obliged to seize 

 several at once — this he does, but never wounds any of them. A 

 hen does not watch her chickens more carefully. For tiffeen or 

 twenty days the male watches the young as a shepherd-dog 

 watches a flock of sheep, moving continually around them. He 

 is remarkable for his voracity except during this period, in which 

 he maintains an almost complete abstinence. 



These Sticklebacks are polygamous; much more intelligent than 

 is generally supposed, and their nests are found from March to 

 August. 



In China, in the month of May or thereabout, large numbers of 

 boats assemble in the great river Yang the Krany to buy Jish seed, 

 a custom since the most remote antiquity. The country people 

 here, bar up the river with mats and screens for eight or ten 

 leagues, leaving only a space open for the boats to pass one at a 

 time. The fish seed is seen adhering to these mats and screens, 

 yet a stranger could not discern a single one in the river. The 

 people fill large vases with this fish seed water, and sell them to 

 dealers, who send them to the streams, ponds, and rivers which 

 they wish to raise the fish in. The Romans used to do much the 

 same thing, and sometimes on a vast scale ! Sowing fish eggs 

 almost as we sow grain, and even succeeding in sowing the seed 

 of salt water fishes successfully in fresh water. The Roman lakes, 

 Velinus, Sabatinus, Vulsinensis, and Cimnius, in Etruria, were 

 thus peopled with the sea fishes, bass, gilt heads, mullets, and 

 others. The rustic descendants of Romulus, and of Numa, prac- 

 ticed this breeding of fish as a measure of great public utility; 

 their foolish descendant despised and lost so useful and valuable 

 an art. 



We thank Dr. Adams for placing before us this very interesting 

 work of M. Coste. 



HENRY MEIGS. 



