. Handbook of nature-study for teachers and parents, based on the Cornell nature-study leaflets. Nature study. i68 Handbook of NaLure-SUidy. Stickleback guarding his nest. Drawn from nature. THE STICKLEBACK Teacher's Story THIS is certainly the most sagacious of the Lilliputian vertebrates; scarcely more than an inch in length when full-grown, it gazes at you with large, keen, shining- rimmed eyes, takes your measure and darts off with a flirt of the tail that says plainly, "Catch me if you ; The sticklebacks are delightful aquarium pets because their natural home is in still wat
. Handbook of nature-study for teachers and parents, based on the Cornell nature-study leaflets. Nature study. i68 Handbook of NaLure-SUidy. Stickleback guarding his nest. Drawn from nature. THE STICKLEBACK Teacher's Story THIS is certainly the most sagacious of the Lilliputian vertebrates; scarcely more than an inch in length when full-grown, it gazes at you with large, keen, shining- rimmed eyes, takes your measure and darts off with a flirt of the tail that says plainly, "Catch me if you ; The sticklebacks are delightful aquarium pets because their natural home is in still water sufficiently stagnant for algae to grow luxuriously; thus we but seldom need to change the water in the aquari- um, which, however, should be well stocked with water plants and have gravel at the bottom. When the stickleback is not resting he is always going somewhere and he knows just where he is going and what he is going to do, and earthquakes shall not deter him. He is the most dynamic creature in all creation, I think, except perhaps the dragon fly, and he is so ferocious that if he were as large as a shark he would destroy all other fishes. Place an earthworm, cut into small sections, in the aquari- um and while each section is wriggingly considering whether it may be able to grow both ends 'nto another worm, the stickleback takes hold with a will and settles the matter in the negative. His ferocity is frightful to behold as he seizes his prey and shakes it as a terrier does a rat. Well is this fish named stickleback, for along the ridge of its back are sharp, strong spines—five of them in our tiny, brook species. These spines may be laid back flat or they may be erected stiffly, making an efficient saw which does great damage to fish many times larger than the stickleback. When we find the minnows in the aquarium losing their scales we may be sure they are being raked off by this saw-back; and if the shiner or sunfish undertakes to make a stickleback raeal, there is
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