82 THE YOUNG 
as well as to keep up a thorough oxygen- 
ation of the water. 
In each compartment I placed a i)air of 
sticklebacks, giving them a meal of angle 
worms before leaving them for the night. 
Next morning, when I examined the tub, 
to my great surprise, many nests had 
been built during the night ; in some of 
them the bright yellow eggs showed 
plainly through the openings of the nest. 
Every nest was being vigorously venti- 
lated by the male fish, who were hard at 
work fanning a current of water on them 
with their i^ectoral fins. In other com- 
partments the male fish were tearing off 
small pieces of confervse that grew on the 
mermaid weed, which they carried in 
their mouths to the nest, i)acking it down 
with their noses. After several mouth- 
fuls had been disposed of in this way, 
they fastened the pieces together by press- 
ing them down more compactly with the 
imder side of the body, at the same 
time exuding a marine glue, so to speak, 
that cemented all together securely. In 
the centre and on the top of each nest 
were four orifices, and into these the male, 
after a considerable display of anger, and 
much driving, at last drove the female, 
her head projecting far enough out to 
allow her to breathe. In a few minutes 
the male drove her out of the nest head 
first, he now passing through the nest, 
and over the eggs, just to see, you know, 
if Mrs. Stickleback had laid her eggs in 
the proper place, and to make things all 
right. In an instant he was out, flaming 
all over with blue, green and orange, his 
eyes looking like small torquoise. When 
the eggs became too much exposed 
through the openings of the nest, he con- 
tracted them by cementing on more con- 
fervae. Over the nest he remained day 
and night, changing from one opening to 
another, constantly fanning a current of 
water through them. Whenever poor 
Mrs. Stickleback showed herself, her mate 
drove at her fiercely, biting her till she 
was glad to hide in the mermaid weed. 
The trouble was that she would have 
eaten all the eggs if she had had a chance, 
and he knew it. For this reason I took 
all the females out as soon as they had 
deposited their eggs. As each nest was 
SCIENTIST. 
completed, and the eggs deposited, I 
withdrew the glass partitions, but terrible 
battles taking place between the males, I 
had to place them back. Even then they 
would try to fight each other through the 
glass. When all the eggs were hatched 
out, and the bottom of each compartment 
seemed alive with young sticklebacks, I 
removed all the male fish and glass par- 
titions, and in a few weeks was the happy 
possessor of a large " school " of inquisi- 
tive, restless, baby sticklebacks. 
For collecting, the best kind of a net is 
what is known as a "scoop net." The 
handle should be from six to eight feet 
long, and an inch and a half in diameter. 
The ring, or scoop, is made of No. 00 wire, 
thoroughly welded together at the s^iank. 
The inner diameter should measure twelve 
inches. The end of the handle, where the 
jointed shank is to be driven in, is pro- 
tected with a ferrule to prevent it from 
splitting. 
The best material for making what is 
known as the bag of the net is " bobbinet 
netting," sometimes called by dealers 
" army netting," shown in Fig. 1. The 
bag should not be less than 14 inches in 
Fig. 1. 
depth. When using this net, always have 
a needle and thread with you, in case of 
the seams giving way, or holes being torn 
in it. 
Fig. 2 consists of No. 00 wire, bent as 
shown at A A A A. The top piece, d d, is a 
piece of wood bound to the ends of the -.jy 
bent wire, a a a a, with strong twine. This 
piece of wood helps to float the frame of 
the net in an upright position when in the 
water. At the mouth of the bag of bob- 
binet a stout band of muslin, c c, is sewed 
to the netting, otherwise if the netting 
was sewed to the iron frame it would cut 
and tear away in a short time. To the 
outer edge of the muslin band, tape ties 
are sewed, two and a half inches apart. > 
With these tape ties the bag or net is 
