4948 Fishes. 



I may express myself, a nocturnal fish — seeking the shade of weeds, stones, &c, during 

 the day — rising into a state of great activity as night approaches, during the greater 

 part of which it swims with as much ease and grace as any of the finny trihe : I have 

 four, one ahout three inches in length, the others from one to two inches: I have also 

 noticed their fins are free from the attacks of the pugnacious Gasterosteus, and also 

 my perch do not seem to quarrel with them as with the dace, bleak or carp. The 

 perch thrives remarkably well in confinement, and becomes very tame; its brilliant 

 hues, graceful movements and its beautiful dorsal crest makes it a very attractive fish 

 in the aquarium: soon after their introduction into my tank I was repeatedly struck 

 by the daily decrease of some very small roach and dace, and for a long time was at a 

 loss to account for it, until at length I found one morning that a perch had taken 

 one too large to swallow — the tail of the roach was sticking out from its mouth : I 

 relieved them, and both are now doing well: the perch are shyish during the middle of 

 the day, but very active early in the morning ; and in the evening, when at rest, they 

 use their tail as a support, remaining perfectly motionless at an angle of about forty- 

 five degrees, with the tail on a stone, and thus they remain for hours. My collection of 

 fishes includes the bleak, carp, roach, dace, eels, gudgeon, perch, minnows, sticklebacks, 

 tench, loach and gold fish, and all of whom thrive well, and are peculiarly adapted for 

 the fresh-water aquarium. — A. Horace Lloyd ; 19, St. Paul's Street, New North Road, 

 December 12, 1855. 



The Great Sea-Serpent. — The sea-serpent having again risen, phoenix-like, from 

 the deep, in the pages of the ' Zoologist,' it may perhaps be pardonable to solicit 

 insertion for the following attempt at explaining his reality, in some at least of the 

 many instances of his reported appearance. Any one who has looked at the preserved 

 remains of the great ribband or scabbard fishes, or who has even read the striking 

 accounts of the huge size they sometimes attain, as well as their extreme rarity, may, 

 like myself, have been thus reminded of those mysterious sea-monsters which are 

 occasionally observed by the unlearned, to be no less a puzzle to learned opinion. 

 When, too, we know that these fish are supposed often to swim at the surface, and thus 

 to be driven ashore more readily, when the only example of whose healthy life we have 

 a credible account, is described as advancing head above water, and by the undulating 

 movement of his body (Yarrell, vol. i. p. 177), may we not reasonably suppose that 

 there exists other and more gigantic forms of this most interesting race as yet 

 uncaptured, and such as might easily simulate, in the waving of their long dorsal 

 fin, the so-called "mane" of the great sea-snake. — A. G. More ; London, November, 

 1855. 



Observations on the Habits of the Stickleback. — During the early part of the last 

 summer T had the good fortune to observe the whole progress of the various stages in 

 the breeding of the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus leiurus), which will therefore 

 enable me to complete the notice already published on this subject in the tenth 

 volume of the 'Zoologist,' dated 1852 (Zool. 3633). In the account there given the 

 observations extended to the completion of the nest by the male fish, and it is my 

 intention in the present communication to carry on the details of the progress from 

 that point, premising that the water was the same which had been employed for the 

 original experiments of 1849, and that the fish contained in the aquarium consisted of 

 three sticklebacks, one male and two females, two tench, and a gold-fish. The position 

 selected by the male fish for the construction of the nest was between two plants of 

 Vallisneiia spiralis, at the point where the leaves spring from the root, and directly in 



