THE STICKLEBACK. 73 



newts ; and having eight or ten fine specimens of 

 the latter creature, determined to take advantage of 

 the opportunity. The first thing was, of course, to 

 kill the creature without injuring its structure, and I 

 thought that the best mode of so doing would be to 

 put it into my poison-bottle. This was a large glass 

 jar filled with spirits of wine, in which was held 

 corrosive sublimate in solution. This mixture gene- 

 rally killed the larger insects almost immediately, 

 and seemed just the thing for the newts. 



So they were put into the jar — but then there was 

 a scene which I will not describe, which I trust 

 never to see again, and of which I do not even like 

 to think. Suffice it to say, that nearly a quarter of 

 an hour elapsed before these miserable creatures 

 died, though in sheer mercy I kept them pressed 

 helow the surface. 



Changing our post of observation from the banks 

 of the ponds to those of the running streams, we 

 shall find there many creatures worthy of observa- 

 tion ; so many, indeed, that it would be a hopeless 

 task to attempt to give even a slight account of one- 

 fiftieth of them. I shall, therefore, only mention 

 two creatures, as examples of the fish ; and these 

 two are chosen because they are exceedingly common, 

 and very different from each other in colour and 

 habits. 



The first of these creatures is the common Stickle- 

 back, or Tittlebat, as it is sometimes called. There 



