Page:British Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fresh-water Fishes.djvu/123

THREE-SPINED STICKLEBACK guards his wife and home with immense bravado, and woe betide any enemy that approaches too near the citadel. The greater the excitement, the more the brave Httle male glows with vivid colours and increasing courage. It does not possess scales, but a series of bony plates (if such they may be termed) extends vertically down the body. The general colour is greenish and silvery, and the three spines are borne along the back, the two front ones being larger than the small one near the dorsal fin. There is also a spine in front of the anal

fin, and one on the middle part of the belly. This fish does not attain a greater length than 2 to 4 inches. It moves about in shoals, and inhabits shallow, as well as deep, water. The merest rivulet, or water-cress bed, having a clear current of water, will contain some of these gay little tenants whose appetite is prodigious when one remembers the smallness of this species. The male is a model father in so far as the young are concerned, as he not only tends them with great fidelity, but will even carry them back into the nest if they leave it before he considers it safe for them so to do. One wife does not suit the male Stickleback as, apparently, she does not 105