.RIVER GARDENS; 
paper, above alluded to, by M. Coste, entitled “ Sur 
la Nidification des Epinoches It is, in fact, these 
curious details so recently published concerning the 
habits of a little fish found in every streamlet, 
which has at length called the attention of iethy- 
ologists to this interesting subject. 
Among birds, as we well know, the female is the 
chief architect, the male only assisting in bringing 
material; but among fish it would seem that the 
building of the domestic dwelling is the task of 
the male. The female, or rather females—-for the 
Stickleback is a polygamist—do not appear to offer 
any aid at all, and expect their lords not only to do 
all the fighting, as previously described, but also all 
the work; while the wives remain idle, in a kind of 
fine-ladyism, which the male Stickleback appears, in 
his polite devotion to the sex, entirely to approve of. 
At spawning-time, therefore, the males may be 
observed, one and all, very busy in preparing the 
nursery, an evidently arduous task to each little 
architect, who brings all the materials in his 
mouth, of course in very small quantities at a time, 
and frequently from very considerable distances. 
It is very instructive to observe his contrivances for 
preventing the foundation of his structure from 
being carried away by the stream, which he effects 
76 
