THE FIFTEEN-SPINED STICKLEBACK — THE HASSAK. 375 



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 shai-p spines along the back. 

 This creature makes its nest of the smaller algse, such as the 

 corallines, and the delicate green and purple seaweeds which 

 fringe our coasts. 



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

 tecture, and builds in very curious sitiiations. 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. They were 

 formed of the usual aggregation of the finer sorts of green and red 

 seaweed, 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 scattered 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 outside 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 Gallichthys, from the 

 beauty of the species. The fishes of this genus have four very 

 long barbules hanging from the upper lip and pointing backwards, 

 and are all mailed except part of the belly. Their general colour 

 is green-brown, and they do not reach to any great size, eight 

 inches being 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 Hassae, and 

 the European residents call it the Hardback, in allusion to its 

 coat of shining mail. 



To the naturalist, however, the chief point of interest in these 

 fish is the fact that they are in the habit of constructing nests 

 which are quite as well formed as those of the stickleback, and 

 are made of grass-blades, straws, and leaves. These nests are 



