ON THE KOTTGH-TAILED STICKLEBACK. 
3 
thought I; but no: another capriole—another and another, till, in the language 
of the newspapers, “ he sank to rise no more, and untimely met his death in a 
watery grave.” I did not give him u coroners quest law,” you may suppose, but 
ladled him out with a spoon, to prevent his tainting the water. Next morning 
I found the other four dead, and covered with a viscid opaque slime. I removed 
them : the survivor was in excellent health and spirits. I attribute the death of 
the five to the sudden transition from brook to river water; the first is of a 
reddish tint, impregnated with vegetable matter, which it gains by percolating 
through the morasses and forests; the latter is exquisitely bright, and of so strong 
a mineral character that new comers are disordered by drinking it. The fish 
that remained became naturalised to the water, which I changed every other day. 
In three or four days after he would rise and take small Flies which I put into 
his jar-; and when these could not be conveniently obtained, a House Fly divided 
in six or seven pieces answered the purpose. His appetite was great, as he would 
eat eight or nine of these Flies a day. In a short time he became so tame that 
he would take them from the tip of the finger, and was not disturbed when the 
whole was introduced. When hungry he was restless after meals he usually 
suspended himself in the middle of the jar, slowly fanning his pectoral fins, and 
would remain poised an hour or more, occasionally moving his eyes, or opening 
his mouth very wide, which might be, for aught I know to the contrary, expres¬ 
sive of ennui , or indigestion. He was in the gayest humour directly after the 
water was changed, and would then sport up and down with great velocity. 
The most curious thing I observed in this fish was the property it possessed 
of changing its colour. Since his residence in the jar he had become very trans¬ 
parent ; at the end of a month he had a permanently roseate tint (I have seen 
specimens with it in the brooks), which he could deepen at pleasure to a very 
dark Salmon-colour, approaching crimson. I used to imagine that he threw out 
these colours when he was hungry; but I am not certain of the correctness of 
this. On other fish of his kind being introduced into the jar, he attacked them 
immediately, as interlopers, chased them up and down, caught them by the tail 
with his mouth, and glanced past them wfith his spines extended, assuming his 
deepest colour. The combined effect of the water and his hostility soon worried 
them out of their lives. Like the recluses of old, he hated the company of his 
fellow-creatures. No doubt he thought with Lord Byron— 
“ There is society where none intrudes 
In the deep ‘jar.’ ” 
He lived about three months, and appeared in perfect health to the last. One 
morning I found him dead at the bottom of the jar, enveloped in slime. 
Since the above was written, I have had an opportunity of referring to Mi\Yar- 
rell’s valuable British Fishes. I find that gentleman s account of the habits of 
