Some Account of the Stickleback. $29 
seven ; pure white, sprinkled all over with small purplish red 
spots, intermixed with a few small faint lines and mark- 
ings of the same colour; size about the same as those of 
the Greater Titmouse, but much more rounded at the smaller 
end. Their food during the winter is principally the seed of 
the reed, and so cat are they in searching for it, that 
I have eles them with a birdlime twig attached to the end 
of a fishing-rod. When alarmed by any sudden noise, or the 
passing of a hawk, they utter their shrill musical notes (which 
your correspondent has well described),. and conceal them- 
selves among the thick bottom of the reeds, but soon resume 
their station, climbing the upright stems with the greatest 
facility. Their manners in feeding approach near to the Long- 
tailed Titmouse, often hanging with the head downwards, and 
turning themselves into the most beautiful attitudes. Their 
food is not entirely the reed seed; but insects and their lamers 
and the very young shell-snails of different kinds which ar 
numerous in the bottom of the reedlings. I have been ena aalen 
to watch their motions when in search of insects, having, when 
there has been a little wind stirring, been often within a few 
feet of them, quite unnoticed, among the thick reeds. Was 
it not for their note betraying them they would be but seldom 
seen. The young, until the mitumatial moult, vary in plumage 
from the old birds; a stripe of blackish feathers extends from 
the hind part of the neck to the rump. Your correspondent 
has been informed the males and females keep separate during 
the winter, but I have always observed them in company ; 
they appear to keep in families until the pairing time, in the 
manner of the Long-tailed Titmouse; differing in this respect, 
that you will occasionally find them congr regated in large 
flocks, more par ticularly during the month of October, when 
they are migrating from their breeding places. 
Yours, &c. 
J: 1; Ttox. 
Stoke Nayland, March 31. 1830. 
Art. VI. Some Account of the Stickleback Fish (Gasterdsteus 
aculedtus). By O. 
Sir, 
I senp you the following short account of a little fish 
which is found in almost all our rivers, brooks, and ponds, 
well known by the name of Stickleback. It is the Gasterés- 
teus aculeatus of Linneeus (fig. $4.), and is thus described by 
Vou. ITI. — No. 14. Z 
