Fishes. 5125 



in this work are the most scrupulously accurate of any natural-history representations 

 I have ever seen, and therefore I take the evidence as perfectly conclusive that the 

 G. pungitius, or " Sma Spigg" of Sweden, is a fish the male of which assumes a red 

 breast in the breeding season. There is no doubt that the G. pungitius of Linneus, 

 Cuvier and of the • Fishes of Scandinavia' is one and the same fish. Well, then, we 

 arrive at this conclusion, that there is on the continent of Europe a fresh-water 

 Gasterosteus which has constantly nine dorsal spines, which has keeled scales on the 

 sides of its tail, and the male of which, in its nuptial livery, is red about the gills and 

 breast, like the familiar G. aculeatus. Now for the contrast : we have in the ditches 

 round London myriads of a very minute fresh-water fish, known to every boy who 

 goes a stilling by the name of "tinker:" this fish has nine spines on the back, a 

 perfectly smooth tail, and the male, in nuptial livery, is of the most intense velvety 

 black, never by any chance exhibiting the slightest tinge of red. Turning again to 

 Cuvier, I find appended to the description of G. pungitius the following note: — "II y 

 a encore dans nos eaux une espece ties voisine (G. l&vis, Cuv.) qui manque de cette 

 armure," and in the subsequently published ' Histoire Naturelle des Poissons,' by 

 Cuvier and Valenciennes (t. iv. p. 506), this smooth-tailed species stands as G. pun- 

 gitius, the G. pungitius of the 'Regne Animal' being omitted altogether. We now 

 come to the historian of 'British Fishes,' an author who has done more for British 

 Natural History than any other living or dead. Mr. Yarrell has given two figures of 

 a Gasterosteus pungitius: these are respectively in the first and second editions of his 

 admirable ' History ;' but it is very difficult to distinguish by a wood-cut those critical 

 differences on which closely allied or questionable species may be said to depend. 

 Neither of the cuts gives an exact idea of our familiar little " linker," but that in the 

 first edition comes the nearest. The description in both editions is the same, and is 

 comprised in a very few words. Mr. Yarrell says it " is distinguished from all the 

 other sticklebacks by the nine or ten spines on the back, all anterior to the dorsal fin, 

 and by the sides being perfectly smooth without any lateral plates," and the colour is 

 described as " a yellowish or olive-green on the back ; sides and belly silvery white, 

 with minute specks of black ; fins pale yellowish white." See ' British Fishes,' L 99, 

 where reference is made to Pennant, Donovan, Fleming and Jenyns, all of whom, I do 

 not doubt, agree in describing the "tinker" as Gasterosteus pungitius, a decision in 

 which I am not disposed to coincide. I will now describe my fish, which I will call 



The Tinker or 9-spined Stickleback (Gasterosteus Icevis). 



Character.— Number of fin rays, 1st D. 9, 2nd D. 10 : P. 1 1 : V. 1 : A. 1 -f- 9 : C. 12, 

 each of the rays of the 1st dorsal has a small triangular fin membrane at its 

 posterior base, all of them are erectile at the pleasure of the fish, and when erected 

 it is seen that they are not seated exactly on the median line of the back, but on two 

 lines, each removed almost imperceptibly to the right and left of a median line; on 

 one line there are five spines, on the other four, and they are seated alternately one on 

 each, right, left, right, left, &c. ; every spine on the right line has, moreover, a most 

 decided inclination to the right, and every spine on the left line to the left, so that the 

 series are well represented by the teeth of a saw recently set, when they are alter- 

 nately and purposely bent to the right and left; the 2nd dorsal and the anal are of 

 nearly equal length, the former originating slightly in advance of the latter: the body 

 is slightly crescentic in outline, the posterior extremity being somewhat depressed ; its 

 surface is smooth, and the carinated scales on the sides of the tail, which Cuvier makes 



