4 Observations on the Three- Spined StichlebaGh. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE THREE-SPINED STICKLE- 

 BACK—ITS OVA AND FRY. 



GASTEROSTEUS ACUIEATUS.—Lirmseus and Blocli. 

 GASTEROSTEUS SPINULOSUS.—Ywrell, Br. F. vol. i. 



BY J. H. HOESJPALL. 



(With an Illustration.) 



The taste for aquaria may not be so fashionable as it was some 

 time ago, but the taste for pisciculture is at fever heat, and I 

 know of no object more interesting to the microscopist than 

 the ova and fry of fish. 



Those who may not be able to procure fecundated ova of 

 salmon or trout, may yet derive as much amusement and in- 

 struction by examining the ova of inferior fish, and by studying 

 its development be able to follow the scientific lecturer in his 

 description of the ova and fry of the more valuable kinds. 



I am induced to make these remarks from having, on the 

 3rd of June last, found several nests of the three-spined stickle- 

 back in a small brook near Leeds, which, after leaving Adel 

 Dam, runs through the village of Meanwood, at which place it 

 receives the refuse of some large tanneries, in which polluted 

 water the nests appeared to be as abundant as in the purer 

 water nearer the source of the brook. 



THREE-SPINED STICKLEBACK, EIGHT DATS OLD. 



NATURAL SIZE. 



The nests were about four or five yards apart, and guarding 

 each nest was a male stickleback, and it was easy to see at 

 a glance which fish was the master tyrant of the colony, his 

 colours being much brighter and more vivid than the others in 

 Ins immediate vicinity could show; the back a rich green, 

 growing darker towards the tail; inside the lower jaw, and 

 along the gill covers and belly, a vivid red; the eye deep blue, 

 With ;i rich deep black pupil, the fins appearing nearly 

 transparent. 



I secured llie most brilliant-coloured male fish I could find, 

 and the nest he was guarding ; it was full of ova, in which 



