428 



ANIMAL LIFE-HISTORIES 



bodies provide, probably as the result of temporary kidney- 

 disease (fig. 955). The matter is thus charmingly described by 

 Fred Smith (in The Boyhood of a Naturalist), evidently as the 

 result of first-hand observation, for the Common Three- Spined 

 Stickleback {Gasterosteus aadeatus) of fresh water. After de- 

 scribing a combat in wnich a male stickleback, or " robin " (so 



^V^^^^'^^^Jt. 



Fig. 955. — Ten-Spined Stickleback [Gasterosteiis fyiingititis, upper figure), and Three-Spined SitickJeback 

 {G. acideatiis, lower figure). At the bottom is shown the nest of the latter. 



named from his bright courtship colours), has engaged, the writer 

 thus proceeds: — "But what is it all about, why is our friend so 

 pugnacious? Well, I never! Fancy not knowing; even my 

 brother knows that ! Why, in that clump of weed the ' robin ' 

 has a home, as real a home as any human father has in this 

 world. You may call it a nest if you like, but he considers it 

 his home, so decidedly that no knight, even of King Arthur's 

 Round Table, was ever more jealous of his castle than he is of 

 that. And he has a wife there, perhaps two or more, but I 



