228 The Fish World at Home. 



sideways like a hammer on its handle, with an eye at each 

 end. 



We may picture the sharks roving freely in search of their 

 prey ; and could we witness the daily life of the sea, we should 

 find them as ferocious, and more ravenous, than the lions and 

 tigers of the land. But if we surveyed the bottoms of smooth 

 bays, we should be struck with the peculiar aspects, and large di- 

 mensions, of the family of skates. Although capable of vigorous 

 motions, their usual habit is to He flat, and as they are creatures 

 of high organization, they require a breathing apparatus which 

 can act powerfully in such a position. Accordingly, each side 

 of the body of a skate is provided with four double gills, and 

 one single gill; the entire gill system exhibiting one hundred 

 and forty-four thousand folds, with an aggregate surface of 

 fifteen square feet, the whole being covered by an elaborate net- 

 work of minute vessels. If a great fish of the skate family is 

 seen lying dead, as a huge lump, on the beach, it is difficult to 

 form an idea of its behaviour in the water, when its swimming 

 capacities are aroused, but a glance at the beautiful coloured 

 plates in Mr. Couch's work, affords an easy insight into some of 

 their habitudes and powers. One of the most striking of these 

 pictorial illustrations, is the figure of the " Eagle Ray," in which 

 the brilliance of the green eye, the wing-like character of the 

 expanded fins, and the fierce flapping of the long whip-like 

 tail, furnish a picture as wonderful as that of any monster of 

 which mythology or fable tells. 



Nor must we suppose that, if it were possible for us to 

 take a journey through the watery regions of the fish world, 

 that we should meet with no instances of constructive skill, or 

 intimations of that maternal affection which reaches its full 

 development among the mammalian tribes. There is, for ex- 

 ample, a fish well known on all our coasts which makes a nest, 

 and watches over the safety of its progeny until they are able 

 to take care of themselves. This is the " Fifteen-spined Stickle- 

 back/' or Sea- Adder, a creature about six inches long, of an 

 elegant tapering form, and varying in colour, but figured by 

 Mr. Couch as golden-yellow and brown. The nest-making 

 capacities of this animal have only recently been ascertained. 

 Something of the kind was previously suspected, and this led 

 Mr. R. Q. Couch to prosecute his investigations, until he was 

 happily rewarded by success. The places selected by the Sea- 

 Adder for its nursery are harbours or recesses sheltered from 

 the violence of the waves. The nests are formed by tying 

 together tufts of seaweed and coralline with a thread secreted 

 from the fish's own body, and which resembles elastic silk. 

 In one instance, Mr. Couch found a nest as big as a man's fist 

 attached to the separated strands of a rope which was hanging 



