THE NATURALIST 
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VOL. IV., NO. XXVi—OCTOBER, 1838. 
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HABITS OF THE ROUGH-TAILED STICKLEBACK (Gasterosteus tra- 
churns , Cuv.) IN RUSSIA. 
By Charles Drosier. 
In the summer of the year 1886 , at which time I was residing in Russia, a few 
versts from the capital, St. Petersburgh, I had an opportunity of observing the 
habit's of that elegant little fish commonly called the Stanstickle or Prickleback, 
in a state of captivity; and never having met with a notice of the kind in any 
Journal of Natural History, or cqnversed with a person who had made this fish 
the subject of similar experiments, I have been led to suppose that the following 
paper may contain something that will be novel, at least to the generality of 
readers; but you must determine whether it is worthy of being incorporated 
with the interesting matter of your periodical. If it is, I beg you will make 
use of it. 
I was situated at Alexandrasky, on the right bank of the Neva, as you ascend 
the river, about eight versts from the city. The country here is flat, but has all 
the rude appearance of a natural scene, though interlaced here and there with 
patches of cultivation; in one place may be seen many acres of the original 
labyrinthine forest standing, composed of Birch, Pine, Spruce Fir, Aspen, and a 
species of Willow, which forms thick underwood; i.n another of the same extent, 
that has yielded to the axe, the stumps of the trees having sprouted into a dense 
copse ; then a track of cleared swampy pasturage, bordering perhaps upon a Moss 
bog, which in some parts is five miles across, fertile with Cranberries, the food of 
the Ptarmigan ; but the cultivated spots are inconsiderable, and removed at 
distances from each other. A person wandering among the solitudes of these 
scenes could hardly persuade himself that he was in the neighbourhood of a 
magnificent city, did he not catch a glimpse, through some opening, of its many 
gilded minarets and glittering domes in the distance. 
When the accumulated snow of winter is thawed by the approach of spring, 
the water quits the land by numerous channels, which ramify from the river in 
all directions—some of the upper branches of which are artificial dikes—and con¬ 
tinues running, generally, till the latter part of June, when most of these channels 
VOL. IY.-NO. XXV. B 
