170 



Handbook of Nature-Study 



eggs and then swims off unconcernedly. Again he enters the nest and 

 drops more milt upon the eggs and then fares forth again, a still energetic 

 wooer. If there was ever a justified polygamist, he is one, since it is only 

 the cares and responsibilities of the home that he desires. He only stops 

 wooing when his nest holds as many eggs as hs feels equal to caring for. 

 He now stands on guard by the door, and with his winnowing pectoral 

 fins, sets up a current of water over the eggs; he drives off all intruders 

 with the most vicious attacks, and keeps off many an enemy simply by 

 a display of reckless fury; thus he stands guard until the eggs hatch and 

 the tiny little sticklebacks come out of the nest and float off, attaching 

 themselves by their mouths to the pond weeds until they become strong 

 enough to scurry around in the water. 



Some species arrange two 

 doors in this spherical nest 

 so that a current of water 

 can flow through and over 

 the eggs. Mr. Eugene Bark- 

 er, who has made a special 

 study of the little five- 

 spined sticklebacks of the 

 Cayuga Basin, has failed to 

 find more than one door to 

 their nests. Mr. Barker 

 made a most interesting ob- 

 servation on this stickle- 

 back's obsession for father- 

 hood. He placed in the 

 aquarium two nests, one of 

 which was guarded by its 

 loyal builder, which allowed 

 himself to be caught rather 

 than desert his post; the 

 little guardian soon dis- 

 covered the unprotected nest and began to move the eggs from it to 

 his own, carrying them carefully in his mouth. This addition made his 

 own nest so full that the eggs persistently crowded out of the door, and 

 he spent much of his time nudging them back with his snout. We saw 

 this stickleback fill his mouth with algas from the bottom of the 

 aquarium, and holding himself steady a short distance away, apparent- 

 ly blow the algae at the nest from a distance of half an inch, and we 

 wondered if this was his method of laying on his building materials 

 before he cemented them. 



The eggs of this species are white and shining like minute pearls, and 

 seem to be fastened together in small packages with gelatinous matter. 

 The mating habits of this species have not been thoroughly studied ; there- 

 fore,^here is an opportunity for investigation on the part of the boys and 

 girls. 



The five-spined stickleback and his nest. 

 Photo by Eugene Barker. 



