Observations on the Three- Spined SticMebaeJc. 5 



could be seen plainly the eyes of the embryo fry. On 

 reaching home, however, I found the colour of the fish much 

 duller, and the green on the back had changed to a dusky 

 blue. 



In Mr. Couch's History of the Fishes of the British Islands, 

 vol. i. p. 167,* is a most interesting account of the habits of 

 this fish, especially its pugnacious disposition. Tor this reason 

 I placed in the same vessel with the nest and the male fish 

 three females. At once the male began a furious attack on the 

 trio, chasing them about, seizing the most weakly by the tail, 

 dragging it half round the vessel, rising with it to the surface 

 of the water, as if to force it out ; sometimes he would seize it by 

 the pectoral fin, and turn it violently on its side, continuing these 

 attacks incessantly, until, in twelve hours, the weakest female 

 died; the next died in about six hours after the first. During 

 these attacks the females acted only on the defensive, by pro- 

 jecting the ventral spines, and could they have received him 

 on the sharp point of one of these weapons, such was the force 

 with which he swam at the female, that death to the tyrant 

 must have immediately followed. The male was very bold ; 

 he would follow the feather with which I removed the newly- 

 hatched fry, and if the fry escaped off the feather, he seized his 

 infant fish, and devoured it at once. From the first dead 

 female I abstracted some immature ova, which he pounced 

 upon the moment I placed them in the water ; then he blew 

 out a portion, re-caught it as it descended, and again ejected a 

 portion to renew his attack on the second dying female. When 

 resting from his attacks on the other fish, he invariably hovered 

 with his nose close to the hole of the nest, with tail considerably 

 elevated, and blew a strong current of water through the 

 nest by means of his pectoral fins. 



The nest is curiously formed, but not of such minute particles 

 as those described in Mr. Couch's account. One piece of withered 

 grass measured seven inches, and was so interwoven with the 

 rest as to drag the whole nest some distance before I could 

 extricate it. To save the life of the surviving female, I put her 

 into a separate vessel, and as soon as the male found himself 

 alone he swam round the nest several times, forming it into 

 shape by the rapid action of his pectoral fins ; at short intervals 

 he plunged his nose into the opening as if to clear it, and 

 resumed his position, hovering over the nest, and forcing water 

 in a strong current through it. His dorsal spines were now 

 laid back so as to be hardly visible ; when, however, he was 

 attacking the females these spines were constantly erect. He 

 often took the empty crusts of the hatched ova, as well as the 



* A History of the Fishes of the British Islands. By Jonathan Couch, Esq., 

 F.L.S. London : Groomhridge and Sons. 



