6C 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
Sticklebacks, male and female ; the females big with spawn : some 
lamperns ; some bulls heads ; but I could promre no minnows.* 
This basket will be in Fleet-street by eight this evening ; so I 
hope Mazel will have them fresh and fair to-morrow morning. I 
gave some directions, in a letter, to what particulars the engraver 
should be attentive 
Finding, while I was on a visit, that I was ^vithin a reasonable 
distance of Ambresbury, I sent a servant over to that town, and 
procured several living specimxcns of loaches, which he brought, 
safe and brisk, in a glass decanter. They were taken in the 
gullies that were cut for watering the meadows. From these 
fishes (which measured from two to four inches in length) I took 
The common stickleback (G- acideatus of Linneeus), certain varieties of which (in the opinion 
of Mr. Jenyns) are figured and described in Mr. Yarrell's work by the names G- trachurus, Cuv., 
semiarmatus, Cuv., Murus, Cuv., and brachycentrus, Cuv.? occurs in every clear ditch and pond, 
and is too well known to require much description. It has three erectible dorsal spines, more or 
less serrated, and varying somewhat in length in different specimens, the second, however, being 
always longest, and the third much shorter than the two others ; also a stout and serrated erect- 
ible spine on each side of the abdomen, which is a modification of the ventral fin, as the others 
are of the first dorsal ; sides more or less defended with horny plates, which vary very consider- 
ably in number ; the sides of the tail furnished ia some with a horizontal expansion of the skin 
forming a keel. 
G- spinulosus (Yarrell and Jenyns), differs in no essential particular from the last, excepting in 
being smaller, and having an additional dorsal spine, situate half-way between the second and 
third of the ordinary ones. This spine is very small, and even shorter than that which precedes 
the soft dorsal fin ; none of the spines are serrated. It was discovered by Dr. !*tark in some plenty 
near Edi)iburgh, and, as Mr, Jenyns remarks, is "possibly a mere variety of the last species, 
which is said to have been numerous in the same pond." 
The ten-spined stickleback (G- pungitius), which Mr. White failed to discover about Selborne, 
is kowever, an obviously distinct species, tolerably common all over the country, though nowhere 
(so far as 1 have observed) quite so abundant as the G- aculeatus, than which it is rather mort 
confined to running water. It is also of a longer make, and differs essentially in wanting the 
lateral scaly plates, though it possesses the triangular one on the belly; the dorsal spines are 
nine or ten in number (the latter, in all that I have ever examined), of equal length, and much 
shorter than in the G- aculeahis, and when erect inclining alternately somewhat to the right and 
left ; the ventral spines are smooth, tail mostly carinated. Both the G- acideatus and G. pungitius 
are found occasionally in the sea, where also is another and very long-shaped British species, 
with fifteen spines, now constituting a distinct sub-genu«, jpinat/iirt ; the latter only occurs in 
salt water. 
The sticklebacks are very lively and active little fishes, and prey voraciously on wsrms, tad- 
poles, and aquatic insects. They spawn in July a.id August, depositing but a small number of 
ova; are very pugnacious, more particularly the G- aculeatus, which, in confinement, will attack 
and nibble off the fins of other and much larger fishes that are kept with it in the same vessel. 
An amusing account of the quarre-lsome propensities of the male during the spawning season is 
given in the Magadne of Natural Histoiij, all of which I can corroborate from repeated observa- 
tions, premising that it is the male only that acquires the glowing colours. The very short space 
of time in which the upper parts of these tiny fishes assimulate in hue to the colour of the vessel 
in which they are placed is not a little curious and remarkable.— Ed. 
* The ntinnow-roach is the lenciscus phoxinus of naturalists, a little well-known fish, much 
used by anglers, about three or four inches long. It is common in rivers, more especially those 
with a gravelly bottom, and keeps in shoals, subsisting on insects, worms, and aquatic plants. 
Spawns early in summer, at which season the head is covered with small tubercles, and the under 
parts of the male (as in the common stickleback) turn to a beautiful and rich crimson. — Ed. 
