FIPTEEN-SPINED STICKLEBACK. 
181 
unsuspected proceeding appear to have been entertained in 
Scotland; but the subject was prosecuted with greater care 
and success in Cornwall, by Mr. Richard Q. Couch, who, 
however, underwent the fate of many other discoverers, in 
having the fruit of his researches stolen from him into a 
foreign language without acknowledgment; to be translated 
back into English by one who was ignorant of the fact that 
he was doing no more than bringing into his own country what 
in truth had before been filched away from it. 
The places selected for these nests are usually in harbours 
or some recess near the open sea, where, with the presence of 
the pure water of the ocean, there is shelter from the open 
violence of the waves. Sometimes they hang in pools of the 
rocks, but it is not rare to find them between tidemarks, 
where they are left uncovered by the tide for two or three 
hours. The moisture of the materials appears sufRcient to save 
the grains of spawn fi'om suffering injury by this exposure. 
The method of proceeding in forming these nests appears to 
be that the fish either find growing, or, certainly in some 
instances, collect together some of the softer kinds of green or 
red sea- weeds, and join them with so much of the coralline 
tufts (Janiac) growing on the rock as will serve tlie purpose 
of affording firmness to the structure, and constitute a mass 
five or six inches . long, of a pear-like shape, and about as 
stout as a man’s fist. A thread is employed with much skill 
and patience in binding these materials together; and there is 
no doubt that its substance is obtained from the creatm-e’s 
own body. It much resembles silk, and is elastic. Under a 
good magnifier it appears to be formed of several smaller 
threads glued together, and it hardens into firmness by 
exposure to the water. But there is reason to believe that it 
is not exuded, nor the roe deposited, all at once; for as it 
is passed through the mass with intricacy in various directions, 
the roe appears in little clumps, which are in different degrees 
of development. 
The gi-ains are of large size in proportion to the magnitude 
of the fish, and of a bright amber colour. They are watched 
over by the parent — in every case I believe, by the male— — 
who never long quits his station; but an instance has occurred 
where two fishes have been engaged in attending one nest: 
VOL. I. 2 D 
