OR, THE HOME-CULTURE OF FRESH-WATER PLANTS. 
ing tlie apparently insufficient means which their 
formation has furnished them for the edification of 
such structures, appears very extraordinary, and yet, 
if our means of observation presented greater facili¬ 
ties, many more species of fish might be found to be 
constructors of complicated nests, than those which 
are as yet known to possess that instinct. The veil 
of the waters, however, which screens their habits 
so effectually from us, renders discovery in this 
direction exceedingly slow. 
Till M. Coste read his interesting paper, on The 
Nidif cation of the Stickleback , the other day, at the 
Trench Academy, modern naturalists, speaking 
generally, may he said to have been ignorant of 
this peculiarity in any species of fishes, as no pub¬ 
lished details had appeared. It had been singu¬ 
larly overlooked by them that Aristotle, above 2000 
years ago, had stated that a certain little fish had 
the liahit of constructing a nest like that of a bird. 
Clive, it is true, among modern naturalists, had 
asserted that the Black Gobie built a nest, and it is 
now thought that this is the same fish alluded to by 
Aristotle. Major Harding had also stated that the 
Gourami, an Indian fish, constructed a kind of nest; 
hut no accurate details upon the subject Avere made 
knoAvn before the publication of the interesting 
75 
