The Scottish Naturalist. 
123 
male fish assume a dark olive colour on the back, their bellies are 
blotched with black and crimson, their lips black, their head 
covered with small, pure white, hard tubercules. These males, 
after spawning, ascend the streams a short distance, and, assem- 
bling in deepish rocky or stony holes, lie together for days in a 
solid mass which might readily be mistaken for a bed of weeds, or, 
as suggested by Parnell, of water ranunculus just bursting into flower. 
After remaining in this condition for a week or so, they gradu- 
-ally separate, return to the loch, and resume their ordinary ap- 
pearance. The female does not change her colour during 
spawning, but retains the beautiful, blackish-grey, mottled back and 
silvery sides and belly. 
Nemachilus barbatula, Linne, the Loach or Beardie. 
This species, in spite of its proverbial fecundity, appears to have 
become very scarce in the locality. Perhaps, however, its exces- 
sively shy and retiring disposition may cause us to believe that it 
is much scarcer than it really is. 
The loach frequents stony ground in shallow water, and is 
found in some numbers in the pools left by retiring floods. It 
spawns in April, produces a large number of ova, is very vora- 
cious, and, notwithstanding its apparently weak powers of swim- 
ming and sedentary habits, is at times irritable and restless, 
moving rapidly and frequently from place to place. 
Pleuronectes flesus, Limie, the Flounder. This species 
still frequents the loch, but is, I think, no longer common. It 
ascends the Leven from the sea in summer, and enters the loch, 
passing up at least as high as Luss ; but I know nothing whatever 
of its habits whilst in the fresh water. Not having taken or seen 
a specimen of the flounder for more than thirty years, and the 
statement that it existed in the loch being generally discredited, I 
lately caused lines to be set in likely places, and after some days 
succeeded in securing two examples, thus proving their continued 
presence with us. The flounder chiefly inhabits muddy and sandy 
ground in the brackish water of estuaries, where it is said to spawn 
in March and April. 
Gasterosteus aculeatus, Linne, the Stickleback, or Bane- 
stickle. The three-spined stickleback is exceedingly abundant 
throughout the district, going about in shoals when young, but be- 
coming solitary when adult. They spawn in the loch in May and 
June, depositing their ova in holes or crannies in rocks and wood, 
