SPINNING FISHES 
3 
{Spimchia spimichia) of European coasts, and the litttle four- 
spined stickleback [Apeltes quadracus) of North America. In 
both of these, the males, who undertake the task of building 
the nests, are spinners — producers of threads of remarkable 
character — which serve to bind together the materials of the nest. 
Spinachia spiitachia^ is about six inches in length, and is the 
largest of its kind. The first account of its nests known to me 
is that of Johnston, published in 1839. They occurred in rocky 
and weedy pools, between tide-marks, on the Berwickshire coast. 
They are about eieht inches in length, and of an elliptical form or pear- 
shaped, formed by matting together the branches of some common Fucus, as, for 
example, of the Fucus nodosus, with various conferv.e, ulvre, the smaller floridex, 
and corallines. These aip all tied together in one confused compact mass by 
means of a thread run through, and around, and amongst them in every conceiv- 
able direction. The thread is of great length, as fine as ordinary silk, tough, and 
somewhat elastic ; whitish and formed of some albuminous secretion. The eggs 
are laid in the middle of this ne.st in several irregular masses of about an inch in 
diameter, each consisting of many hundred ova, which are of the size of ordinary 
shot, and of a w'hiti-sh or amber colour. . . . Masses of eggs, in different 
stages of their evolution, are met with in the same nest. It is evident that the 
fish must first deposit its spawn amid the growing fucus, and afterwards gather its 
branches together around the eggs, weaving and incorporating at the same time 
all the rubbish that is lying or floating around the nucleus.* * 
Another account, written independently, is by Dr. R. Q. 
Couch, from observations made on the Cornish coast. 
During the summers of 1842 and 1S43. while searching for the naked mol- 
luscs of the county, I occasionally discovered portions of sea weed, and the 
common coralline (C. officinalis') hanging from the rocks in pear-shaped masses, 
variously intermingled with each other. On one occasion, having observed that 
the mass was very curiously bound together by a slender silky looking thread, 
it was torn open, and the centre was found to be occupied by a mass of trans- 
parent amber-coloured ova [of . . . The nest varies a 
great deal in size, but rarely exceeds six inches in length, or four inches in 
breadth. It is pear-shaped, anc> composed of sea-weed, or the common coralline, 
as they hang suspended from the rock. They are brought together, without 
being detached from their places of growth, by a delicate opaque white thread. 
This thread is highly elastic, and very much resembles silk, both in appearance 
and texture ; this is brought round the plants, and tightly binds them together, 
plant after plant, till the ova, which are deposited early, are completely hid from 
view. The silk-like thread is passed in all directions through and around the 
mass in a very complicated manner. At first the thread is semi-fluid, but by 
exposure it solidifies ; and hence contracts and binds the substances forming the 
nest so closely together, that it is able to withstand the violence of the sea, and 
may be thrown carelessly about without derangement. . . . Some of these 
nests are formed in pools, and are consequently always in water ; others are 
frequently to be found between tide-marks, in situations where they hang dry 
for several hours during the day.'* 
maniere dont les Epinoches construisent leur nid et soignent leurs oeufs.” 
Comptes rendus des seances de I’Academie des Sciences, xxii. (1846), pp. 814-8, 
transl, Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, .xlii. (1847), pp. 322-7 ; “ Nidifica- 
tion des Epinoches et des Epinochettes,” Memoires des Savants etrangers, x. 
(1848), pp. 576-88; Landois, Der Zoologische Garten, xxii. (1871), pp. i-io; &c. 
* Gasterosteus spinachia — Spinachia vulgaris — Spinachia spinachia. 
*G. J., “On the nests of the Fifteen-spined Stickleback,” History of the 
Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, i. (1839), pp. 2CX)-I ; Annals of Natural History, 
V. (1840), pp. 148-9. 
■' R. Q. Couch, “On the Nidification of Fishes,” Report of the Royal Insti- 
tution of Cornwall, 1843, PP- 30 -i > Zoologist, ii. (1844), pp. 795-9. 
