Page:British Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fresh-water Fishes.djvu/122

BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES does not show itself to advantage, as it delights to hide among stones or weeds. For all that, it is an active enough species when, as often happens, its hunger must be appeased. It is an inveterate enemy of other fishes, and greedily devours their eggs as well. Eel-like in form, with a prominent belly, tapering body, and large head and mouth, the Burbot (from an old French word Bourhotte) may be brownish, greenish, greyish, or yellowish in colour, with dark brown or black markings on the back and sides, and paler below. The maximum weight attained in our home waters is about 3 pounds. Larger specimens have been captured, but they are of rare occurrence, except on the Continent and elsewhere.

Three-Spined Stickleback.—Gastrosteiis aculeatiis (Fig. 58). This famiUar little fish is both a fresh and salt- water inhabitant, and is unlike its ten-spined relative in this respect. It is indelibly linked up with the days of our youth, and many specimens succumb every Summer owing to the small receptacles in which the poor mites are imprisoned by too enthusiastic disciples of Izaak Walton. It is easily lured, and can be caught without a hook, as it seizes a worm as big as itself and simply refuses to let go. Several will rush to the feast, and will even impale one another with their spines rather than be defeated in their frantic quest. This is one of the few-fishes which builds a nest. The male does this unaided, and then invites a female to enter the portals to deposit her "clutch" of eggs. This accompHshed, the "Soldier" Stickleback, as boys call the gay-clad male, 104