LESSON XLVI.
BIG AND LITTLE BROTHERS.
Yesterday, as I was going along the street, I saw a large globe full of tiny fish. They were from one to two inches long. I stopped to examine them. They were sticklebacks. You must know that little Mr. Stickleback is a very pretty and curious fellow, and well worth buying.
THE LITTLE HOUSE BUILDER.
THE LITTLE HOUSE BUILDER.
Looking into this globe made me think of some of the queer things I have heard and seen of this little fish. Shall I tell you about him?
The stickleback gets his name from the fact that someof his fins, one on the back and one on the lower part of the body, have changed to spines or thorns. Different kinds of stickleback have three, four, ten, fifteen, of these thorns.
This little fellow is one of the smallest and prettiest of fishes. He is slender, and from one to three inches long. The general length is about an inch and a half. His body is silver below, green and purple in bands on the back, and red and gold on the head and sides. His fins are thin as finest silk. I never saw a prettier little creature.
The stickleback is very greedy, very fearless, full of courage, very affectionate, and of all fishes is the most devoted parent. Finally, the stickleback can build a house.
The colors of the stickleback brighten or fade according as he feels glad or sad. If he has lost his mate, his home, or his young ones, or if he has been beaten in a fight, he swims off to hide, and his colors grow dull. If he has beaten his enemy, if his children and mate are quite safe in the little house where he has put them, he gleams and glows like a rainbow.
Sticklebacks are so fearless that when they are in a pond no noise or shadow will alarm them. You can even catch them without a hook just bydropping among them a string with a worm on it. You may pull up the string with two sticklebacks fast, one on each end of the worm. Little English boys take this way of catching these tiny fish for their globes.
When put into a globe or box, they fight sharply at first. They strike each other with their spines, whirl, dart, pretend to be beaten, and then leap back to the fight. They are real little soldiers. Finally, when they have found out which of them all is the strongest, each one chooses his own corner, or shelter by a stone for a home, and defends that against all strangers.
The different varieties of sticklebacks build different kinds of houses. One makes a nest like a muff among water-weeds. I will tell you of one kind of nest. The little fish carries straws and bits of grass and moss, and tucks them down into the gravel and sand. He glues them with the glue from his skin.
While he is at work he holds and carries his material with his mouth, and presses it into place with his body. Having laid a floor, he builds a little hut of woven fibres and moss. This hut is about as large round as a twenty-five-cent piece. A little door is at the top. He tries the strength of hishouse by stirring up the water near it with his tail.
When all is done Mr. Stickleback swims off to find his mate. He seems to tell her that the house is ready. She is a lazy little creature, and does nothing but frolic in the water. She goes along to the new home, and goes in to lay some eggs there. Mr. Stickleback proudly swims up and down before the home to keep foes away.
The little mate being fond of play does not like to stay in the house long. She lays a few eggs about the size of poppy seeds. Then she bites a hole in the house and runs away! Next day little Mr. Stickleback goes to find her, and coaxes her back. This goes on for several days, until a great number of bright yellow eggs, like seeds, are laid in the nest.
After this, it is a whole month before the little fish will hatch. Meantime other fish and other sticklebacks will eat them, if they get the chance. All that month the kind, brave little stickleback swims up and down near his nest, and drives off enemies. He will let no fish, not even his mate, come near his treasure.
Finally, out come the wee, wee fish. Now the poor little father has a harder time than ever. Theother fish want to eat up the young fry. The food of sticklebacks is grubs, tiny insects, and very small fry. As they are very hungry and greedy, they are on the watch to pick up the new little fish. But the stickleback, however hungry, never eats his own little ones. He leaves such vile conduct to the dog-fish.
As the little ones grow, they are very active, and want to stray away from their home. Their father knows they would get into danger, so he watches, and chases each runaway back into its home bounds, where he can take care of them all.
Finally, the little ones are so nearly grown that they can fight for themselves. They can pick up their own food, and make their own houses. Then they are allowed to go off and swim where they choose.
As I have told you about a very little fish, I will now tell you something of a very big fish. The sturgeon is a great fish which lives in the waters of many countries. He is found in some of our rivers. The body and head of the sturgeon are partly covered with five long lines of great bony plates. These plates are grooved, and have a sharp point in the centre. They make good armor.
Sturgeon are fond of playing and leaping from the water. They are often speared by people standing on rocks or in boats. I have seen very big ones taken from the Niagara River. In the Ohio and Mississippi the curious spoon-bill or paddle-fish sturgeon are found. In some of our other rivers the shovel-headed sturgeon lives.
The flesh of the sturgeon is good for food. The Russians make isinglass from the air bladder of the sturgeon, and one or two kinds of food are prepared from its roe and flesh. Of the isinglass prepared from the sturgeon, jelly is made. Glue is very plentiful in the skin and bones of the sturgeon, and a kind of food is made from the spinal marrow.
I need hardly tell you much about the uses of fish. You all know that they form a large part of the food of men, and many birds and beasts. Glue is made from fish-bones and skins.
From many fish are made those substances that I told you farmers put upon their land to restore the minerals eaten out by the plants.
Oil is also made from fish. From parts of the cod an oil very useful for medicine is obtained. From other fish, lamp oil and machine oil are pressed. A little fish in the Caspian Sea is so oily that whenit is dried its body burns with a clear light. These dried fish are used as candles. When the Cossacks get hungry, and have nothing else for supper, they eat their fish candles.
That terrible fish, the shark, is very useful after he is dead. From his fins, fine gelatine is made. From his skin, a leather-like substance called shagreen is prepared. Shagreen is used in polishing wood, and for covers of portfolios, instrument-cases, and the like.
From the bones of the shark, buttons and ornaments are made, and very costly canes from his backbone. His teeth are very hard and white, and are often mounted in gold and sold for ornaments.
There are many large and interesting books about fisheries, manufactures of articles from fish, and about the various kinds of fish, and their habits and uses. I hope you will try to get some of these books to read. In fact, I hope you will pursue for yourselves all these studies in nature which we have begun in the Nature Readers.