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XV. Abfiract of a Letter from Mr. Wm* 
Arderon, F. R. S. to Mr. Henry Baker, 
F. R. S. containing fome Obfervations made 
on the Banfticle, or Pricklebag, alias Prickle- 
back, and alfo on Fifh in general. 
Dear S I 
Read Feb. T ANY of my Leifure Hours laft 
?746 " 7 J\jL Summer were employed in at- 
tending and making Obfervations on feveral Kinds of 
Fifff, fome whereof I with great Care have preferred, 
alive in glafs Jars for many Months together. 
I fent you fome time ago a brief Account of 
what I had obferved remarkable in the Dace and 
Ruff, and am now going to Jay before you what I 
have thought worth Notice in that little common 
Fifh called the Prickle-Back. 
About the Beginning of laft April I took a Ban- 
fticle out of our River, full of Spawn, and put it 
into one of my glafs Jars, at the Bottom of which I 
had placed a fmall Quanitty of Sand, as I always do 
in every Vcffel wherein my Fifh are kept 5 and about 
the 20th of May it buried its Spawn in the faid 
Sand. I was in Hopes this Spawn would have pro- 
duced a young Brood, but was unluckily difappointed 5 
which I impute to its being frequently difturbed by 
the pouring in of frefh Water. 
For fome Days after I had c.arched this Banfticle, 
it refuted to eat any thing I could offer it, as is com- 
mon with all Fifh I have yet kept, but frequently 
giving 
