Fishes. 4415 



Mr. Richard Howse, who found three or four of these nests in a 

 pool among the rocks at Tynemouth, a year or two ago, informs me 

 that each was attended by a fish, and that they scarcely ever left their 

 nests, but kept hovering about, attentively examining them, and thrust 

 ing their projecting muzzles amidst the sea-weeds of which they were 

 composed ; the fish would occasionally poise themselves close to the 

 nest, and fan them with the pectoral fins in the same manner as the 

 three-spined species. And, indeed, it is quite evident, from the 

 accounts given by these two gentlemen, that the habits of both species, 

 in all that concerns nidification, perfectly coincide ; both guard the 

 nest with the same unwearied perseverance, drive off enemies, make all 

 necessary repairs, fan or ventilate the nest, and keep it in all respects 

 in good order. 



It is satisfactory to observe this exact similarity of habits, for Mr. 

 Couch has changed his opinion, apparently upon insufficient grounds, 

 respecting the nest, which he attributed to the fifteen-spined stickle- 

 back. He now considers it to belong to the common shanny (Blen- 

 nius pholisj, arriving at this conclusion after having examined the 

 young hatched from ova taken out of one of the nests. " Being from 

 the first," says this gentleman, " impressed with the conviction that 

 they were the young of the fifteen-spined stickleback, I was much 

 surprised to notice the great difference of their shape from that of 

 their supposed parent, more especially in the parts before the eyes, 

 which, instead of being elongated and slender, were short and round. 

 In consequence of this, they were closely examined with glasses, and 

 drawn with the aid of a microscope of low power; and, though I 

 failed to detect satisfactorily the ventral fins of that fish, (chiefly per- 

 haps from their slender form and transparency), yet, from the declivity 

 of the head, protuberance of the belly, the pectoral fin, and the length 

 of the dorsal and anal fins, which in some specimens were continuous 

 with the caudal, and in others separated by a slight notch, I had no 

 hesitation in referring them to the common shanny." 



Now, the young of the three-spined stickleback differ just as widely 

 from the mature fish as the young of the fifteen-spined species are 

 stated to do; and, what is of still more importance, the differences are 

 of exactly the same kind. In the former, as well as in the latter, the 

 parts before the eyes are short and round, and can scarcely be said to 

 project at all in front; the declivity of the head is consequently great; 

 the belly is protuberant, and the dorsal and anal fins are long and 

 continuous with the caudal. The young of the three-spined stickle- 

 back would therefore appear also to possess, at first, the characters of 



