64 



THE FAMILY AQTJAEIUM. 



the meantime, being inactive lookers-on, quietly bestow 

 their affections on the conquerors. 



The female stickleback is not often pretty, and the male 

 is sometimes nearly black ; but the more showy ones are 

 robed in a style of fanciful elegance. They may be found 

 with many a shade of rich purple, blinding into green and 

 white adown their glossy backs, and with a vivid scarlet 

 glowing on their breasts. As we have said in another 

 part of this treatise, these colors intensify when the 

 stickleback is excited, until they gleam with a brilliance 

 and beauty beyond all imagination. The moment he is 

 defeated, however, by a superior force, his colors fade 

 away into a dingy, dull white, or a common-place combi- 

 nation of hues of no attraction. What is still more extra- 

 ordinary, he, hke a chameleon, assumes, for the nonce, the 

 color of any vessel in which you place him. In a white 

 bowl, he becomes white ; in a pink one, he rivals the rose. 

 This is why he is so frequently indistinguishable in his 

 place of abode ; and this may enable us to impart to him 

 the complexion we most prefer. 



With all his pugnacity, however, the stickleback is an 

 affectionate and attentive mate. His gallantry is per- 

 fectly exem^laire. Unlike other fishes, he builds a nest, 

 even, for his chosen partners. He is somewhat of a Mor- 

 mon in the polygamous principle of his domestic economy, 

 it must be confessed ; but this failing aside, he is a model 

 of a husband. In his little mouth he conveys, about 

 spawning-time, all the necessary materials, even from 



