SEXUAL SELECTION 483 



bold and pugnacious, wtile "the females are quite pacific." 

 Their battles are at times desperate; "for these puny com- 

 batants fasten tight on each other for several seconds, 

 tumbling over and over again, until their strength appears 

 completely exhausted." With the rough-tailed stickleback 

 (<?. trachurus) the males while fighting swim round and 

 round each other, biting and endeavoring to pierce each 

 other with their raised lateral spines. The same writer 

 adds,' "the bite of these little furies is very severe. They 

 also use their lateral spines with such fatal effect that I have 

 seen one during a battle absolutely rip his opponent quite 

 open, so that he sank to the bottom and died." When 

 a fish is conquered, "his gallant bearing forsakes him; hia 

 gay colors fade away ; and he hides his disgrace among his 

 peaceable companions, but is for some time the constant 

 object of his conqueror's persecution." 



The male salmon is as pugnacious as the little stickle- 

 back; and so is the male trout, as I hear from Dr. Gunther. 

 Mr. Shaw saw a violent contest between two male salmon 

 which lasted the whole day; and Mr. E. Buist, Superin- 

 tendent of Fisheries, informs me that he has often watched 

 from the bridge at Perth the males driving away their 

 rivals, while the females were spawning. The males "are 

 constantly fighting and tearing each other on the spawning- 

 beds, and many so injure each other as to cause the death 

 of numbers, many being seen swimming near the banks of 

 the river in a state of exhaustion, and apparently in a 

 dying state."" Mr. Buist informs me that in June, 1868, 

 the keeper of the Stormontfleld breeding-ponds visited the 

 northern Tyne and found about 300 dead salmon, all of 

 which with one exception were males ; and he was convinced 

 that they had lost their lives by fighting. 



The most curious point about the male salmon is that 



» Loudon's "Mag. of Nat. History," vol. Mi., 1830, p. 331. 



• "The Field," June 29, 1867. For Mr. Shaw's statement, see "Edinburgh 

 Review," 1843. Another experienced observer (Scrope's "Days of Salinoa 

 Fishing," p. 60) remarks that, like the si»g, the male woald, if he could, ksep 

 ail other males away. 



