80 
ACANTHOPTERYGII. — TRIGLAD^. 
serve them as organs of touch, endowed with a 
sensibility to impressions that are indispensable 
in the situations where they haunt, as bottom 
feeders. 
About two hundred and sixty species are enu- I 
merated in the Family, of which just one tenth 
part are European. 
To this Family belongs a genus of fishes con- I 
taining many well-known inhabitants of our 
coasts and rivers, the Sticklebacks {G aster osteus). 
We have seven species, all of them of small size, I 
some of which are familiar to every truant school- 
boy by their abundance, their pigmy dimensions, 
their armature of spines and plates, their vivacity 
and boldness, and the beautiful tints of green, | 
crimson, and silver, with which they are frequently | 
adorned. 
These little fishes, however, present other . 
claims to our attention ; for they afford additional 
examples of an instinct which has been considered 
almost if not quite unknown in the Class to 
which they belong, that of nest-building. The 
habits of one of these species, which appears to I 
be the commonest of the Three-spined Stickle- 1 1 
backs (6f. tracJiurus) have been described by a 
careful observer in a little-known periodical, 3 
called The Youth’s Instructor;” and his account 
carries its own guarantee of correctness with it. i 
In a large dock for shipping on the Thames,” 
observes this writer, thousands of these fish ^ 
were bred some years ago ; and I have often 
amused myself for hours by observing thenu 
While multitudes have been enjoying themselves i 
near the shore in the warm sunshine, others have i j 
been busily engaged in making their nests, if a | j 
