STUDIES IN ANIMAL LIFE. 57 



stones, sticks, with a fish, worms, moUusks, and tri- 

 tons. The fish we must secure, for it is a stickle- 

 back — a pretty and interesting inhabitant of an 

 aquarium, on account of its nest-building propensi- 

 ties. We are surprised at a fish building a nest 

 and caring for its young like the tenderest of birds 

 (and there are two other fishes, the Goramy and the 

 Hassar, which have this instinct) ; but why not a 

 fish as well as a bird? The catfish swims about 

 in company with her young, like a. proud hen with 

 her chickens, and the sunfish hovers for weeks over 

 her eggs, protecting them against danger. 



The wind is so piercing, and my fingers are so 

 benumbed, I can scarcely hold the brush. More- 

 over, continual stooping over the net makes the 

 muscles ache unpleasantly, and suggests that each 

 cast shall be the final one. But somehow I have 

 made this resolution and broken it twenty times : 

 either the cast has been unsuccessful, and one is 

 provoked to try again, or it is so successful that, as 

 Tappetit vient en mangeant, one is seduced again. 

 Very unintelligible this would be to the passers- 

 by, who generally cast contemptuous glances at us 

 when they find we are not fishing, but are only re- 

 moving nothings into a glass jar. One day an 

 Irish laborer stopped and asked me if I were fish- 

 ing for salmon. I quietly answered "Yes." He 

 drew near. I continued turning over the weed, oc- 

 casionally dropping an invisible thing into the wa- 

 ter. At last a large yellow-bellied Triton was 

 C2 



