Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/851

Rh As soon as the pairing-season sets in, the first care of the male stickleback is to provide a nest for his wife and children. For the stickleback is just as much a nest-builder as any bird; only, he does all the work himself, instead of being aided, as birds usually are, in



the task of nidification, by his attentive partner. He begins by busily collecting a quantity of delicate fibrous material, the tissues of water-weeds or of macerated land-plants, which he mats with his mouth into an irregular circular mass, somewhat depressed, and about an inch and a quarter in diameter. Then he covers the top with similar materials, and leaves in the center of one side a large, round aperture to act as a