STICKLEBACKS AND THEIR NESTS—THE BULLHEAD—THE ROCK-COD—THE
CHIRUS—FLATFISH.
The genus _Cottoidæ_, (fish having mailed cheeks) has a great many
representatives, common on Vancouver Island and the British Columbian
coasts. The least of the family, the stickleback, is so singularly
different from most other fishes in its habits, as to merit the first
consideration.
In the months of July and August it would be difficult to find a
stream, large or small, swift or slow, lake, pool, or muddy estuary,
east and west of the Cascade Mountains, that has not in it immense
shoals of that most irritable and pugnacious little fish the
stickleback, ever ready on the slightest provocation to engage in a
battle. Let friend or foe but rub against his royal person, or come
nearer his private subaqueous garden than he deems consistent with
safety or good behaviour, in a moment the spines are erected like
spear-points, the tiny eyes glow with fury, the colours decking
his scaly armour intensify, and flash with a kind of phosphorescent
brightness, until the diminutive gladiator looks the impersonation of
rage and fury; but as we cultivate his acquaintance, and gain a better
knowledge of his real character, we shall discover that his quarrelsome
disposition is not so much attributable to a morose temper, and a love
of fighting for fighting’s sake, as to a higher and more praiseworthy
principle.
No amount of thinking would lead one to imagine that his pugnacity
arises from intense parental affection: a love of offspring, scarcely
having a parallel in the living world, prompting him to risk his life,
and spend a great deal of his time in constantly-recurring paroxysms of
fury and sanguinary conflicts, in which it often happens that one or
more of the combatants gets ripped open or mortally stabbed with the
formidable spines arming the back. Skill in stickleback battles appears
to consist in rapidly diving under an adversary, then as suddenly
rising, and driving the spines into his sides and stomach. The little
furies swim round and round, their noses tightly jammed together; but
the moment one gets his nose the least bit under that of his foe, then
he plies his fins with all his might, and forcing himself beneath,
does his best to drive in his spear, if the other be not quick enough
to dart upwards and escape the thrust; thus squaring they fight round
after round until the death or flight of one ends the combat.
I have often, when tired, lain down on the bank of a stream, beneath
the friendly shade of some leafy tree, and gazing into its depths
watched the sticklebacks either guarding their nests already built, or
busy in their construction. The site is generally amongst the stems of
aquatic plants, where the water always flows, but not too swiftly. He
first begins by carrying small bits of green material, which he nips
off the stalks, and tugs from out the bottom and sides of the banks;
these he attaches by some glutinous material, that he clearly has the
power of secreting, to the different stems destined as pillars for
his building. During this operation he swims against the work already
done, splashes about, and seems to test its durability and strength;
rubs himself against the tiny kind of platform, scrapes the slimy mucus
from his sides, to mix with and act as mortar for his vegetable bricks.
Then he thrusts his nose into the sand at the bottom, and bringing
a mouthful scatters it over the foundation; this is repeated until
enough has been thrown on to weight the slender fabric down, and give
it substance and stability. Then more twists, turns, and splashings,
to test the firm adherence of all the materials that are intended to
constitute the foundation of the house, that has yet to be erected on
it. The nest or nursery, when completed, is a hollow, somewhat rounded,
barrel-shaped structure, worked together much in the same way as the
platform fastened to the water-plants; the whole firmly glued together
by the viscous secretion scraped from off the body. The inside is made
as smooth as possible, by a kind of plastering system; the little
architect continually goes in, then turning round and round, works the
mucus from his body on to the inner sides of the nest, where it hardens
like a tough varnish. There are two apertures, smooth and symmetrical
as the hole leading into a wren’s nest, and not unlike it.
All this laborious work is done entirely by the male fish, and when
completed he goes a-wooing. Watch him as he swims towards a group of
the fair sex, enjoying themselves amidst the water-plants, arrayed in
his best and brightest livery, all smiles and amiability: steadily, and
in the most approved style of stickleback love-making, this young and
wealthy bachelor approaches the object of his affections, most likely
tells her all about his house and its comforts, hints delicately at
his readiness and ability to defend her children against every enemy,
vows unfailing fidelity, and, in lover-fashion, promises as much in a
few minutes as would take a lifetime to fulfil. Of course she listens
to his suit: personal beauty, indomitable courage, backed by the
substantial recommendations of a house ready-built, and fitted for
immediate occupation, are gifts not to be lightly regarded.
Throwing herself on her side, the captive lady shows her appreciation,
and by sundry queer contortions declares herself his true and devoted
spouse. Then the twain return to the nest, into which the female at
once betakes herself, and therein deposits her eggs, emerging when
the operation is completed by the opposite hole. During the time she
is in the nest (about six minutes) the male swims round and round,
butts and rubs his nose against it, and altogether appears to be in
a state of defiant excitement. On the female leaving he immediately
enters, deposits the milt on the eggs, taking his departure through the
backdoor. So far, his conduct is strictly proper, but, I am afraid,
morality in stickleback society is of rather a lax order. No sooner
has this lady, his first love, taken her departure, than he at once
seeks another, introduces her as he did the first, and so on wife after
wife, until the nest is filled with eggs, layer upon layer—milt being
carefully deposited betwixt each stratum of ova. As it is necessary
there should be two holes, by which ingress and egress can be readily
accomplished, so it is equally essential in another point of view. To
fertilise fish-eggs, running water is the first necessity; and as the
holes are invariably placed in the direction of the current, a steady
stream of water is thus directed over them.
For six weeks (and sometimes a few days more) the papa keeps untiring
sentry over his treasure, and a hard time he has of it too: enemies of
all sorts, even the females of his own species, having a weakness for
new-laid eggs, hover round his brimming nest, and battles are of hourly
occurrence; for he defies them all, even to predatory water-beetles,
that, despite their horny armour, often get a fatal lance-wound from
the furious fish. Then he has to turn the eggs, and expose the under
ones to the running water: and even when the progeny make their
appearance, his domestic duties are far from ended, for it is said
(although I have never seen him do it), ‘When one of the young fish
shows any disposition to wander from the nest, he darts after it,
seizes it in his mouth, and brings it back again.’
There are three species that come into the fresh-waters of British
Columbia, to nest and to hatch their young:—
_Gasterosteus serratus_, the Saw-finned Stickleback (Ayres, Proc. Cal.
Acad. Nat. Sc. 1855 p. 47).—_Sp. Ch._: Body entirely plated; peduncle
of tail keeled; the three dorsal spines conspicuously serrated on their
edges; anterior fin a little in advance of the base of the pectoral;
insertion of ventrals in advance of the second dorsal spine—their own
spines serrated on both edges; posterior margin of caudal somewhat
hollowed. The colour of the freshly-caught fish is greyish-olive along
the dorsal line; but on the sides, particularly in the male, it shades
away into an iridescence, like that seen on mother-o’pearl, again
changing to pure silvery-white on the abdomen.
_Gasterosteus Pugettii_, the Puget Sound Stickleback (Grd., Proc.
Acad., Nat. Sc. Phil., viii. 1856).—_Sp. Ch._: Body only in part
plated, peduncle of tail not keeled; the three dorsal spines without
serrations; the anterior one inserted immediately behind the base of
the pectorals; ventrals inserted anterior to the second dorsal spine.
The colour is very much like that of _G. serratus_, but more decidedly
purplish on the sides the eyes bright red in both species, when fresh
from the water.
_Gasterosteus concinnus_, the Tiny Stickleback (Rich., F. B. A., p.
57, vol. iii.).—_Sp. Ch._: Head one-fourth of the total length, mouth
small, and teeth but feebly developed; dorsal spines nine, seventh
and eighth smaller than the preceding ones, the ninth longer than any
of the others. The abdomen is protected by a bony cuirass, and the
ventrals represented by two spines. All the spines are moveable, and
destitute of serrations. Colour of the back a bright sea-green, sides
purplish-pink, shading away to a silvery-white on the belly the entire
body speckled with minute black spots.
This handsome little stickleback, though smaller in size than his
brethren, is vastly more abundant. Sir J. Richardson speaks of it
‘as being common in the Saskatchawan, ranging as far north as the
65th parallel.’ So abundant are they in the lakes and pools about
Cumberland House, east of the Rocky Mountains, that sledge-loads
are dipped out with wooden bowls, and used for feeding the dogs. I
have seen cartloads of these tiny fish in a single pool, left by the
receding waters after the summer floods, on the Sumass prairie and
banks of the Chilukweyuk river. As the water rapidly evaporated, the
miserable captives huddled closer and closer together, starving with
hunger and panting for air, but without the remotest chance of escape.
The sticklebacks die and decompose, or yield banquets to the bears,
weasels, birds, and beetles; the pool dries, and in a few weeks not
a trace or record remains of the dead host of fishes. In the smaller
streams, a bowl dipped into the water where the sticklebacks were
thickest, could be readily filled with fish.
Sticklebacks are the most voracious little gourmands imaginable,
devourers of everything, and cannibals into the bargain; tearing
their wounded comrades into fragments, they greedily swallow them. I
have often taken this species (_G. concinnus_) in Esquimalt Harbour,
where they are very plentiful during the winter months. The natives
of Kamtschatka make use of a stickleback (_G. obolarius_), which they
obtain in great quantities, not only as food for the sledge-dogs, but
for themselves also, by making them into a kind of soup. West of the
Rocky Mountains I have never seen the Indians use them as an article
of diet, not from any dislike to the fish, but simply because there are
larger and better fishes quite as abundant, and as easily procurable.
Whether there are any species in the North-west, strictly marine,
building their nests in the sea and never entering fresh-water, I am
unable to say.
The Fifteen-spine Stickleback (_Gasterosteus spinachia_) is along our
own coasts strictly a tenant of the ocean, and makes a nest of seaweeds
glued together with an adhesive mucus, in the same way as the nests of
our little friends are cemented, that seek as their nursery the clear
cold streams of British Columbia, Oregon, and Vancouver Island.
THE BULLHEAD.—The stickleback has a near relative, with a name nearly
as ugly as the owner, ‘_Bullhead_’ being certainly not suggestive of
beauty! With such a name, we are the less disappointed to find the
entire family of our friends ill-favoured, prickly, hard-skinned, and
as uncomfortable to handle as to look at. Plates of scaly armour cover
the head, from which sprout sharp spines, like a crop of horns; between
these are tubercles that have the appearance of being rivets. The body
looks like an appendage, tapering away to a mere nothing at the tail.
There are many species frequenting the lakes and rivers of British
Columbia, during the summer months, for the purpose of spawning. On
their return to the sea, swarms of young bullheads, of various species,
regularly follow the ebb and flow of the tide; and in rough weather
every breaker, as it rushes up the shelving shingle, carries a freight
of tiny fish, that are left struggling amid the pebbles in thousands,
to be dragged back and floated out again by the succeeding wave, or to
find a last home in the stomachs of the sea-birds.
The bullhead does not actually build a nest, like the stickleback, but
makes an egg-house, on the bottom of some slowly-running stream. The
male usually selects a hollow under a boulder, or a space betwixt two
stones, and shoves out the lesser pebbles and gravel, to form a pit.
This accomplished, several females are in turn induced to deposit their
roe, having done which they are driven off by the male, who supplies
the milt, then shovels the sand and pebbles, with his huge horny head,
over the treasure, until it is completely covered: more females, more
eggs and milt, more shovelling, until the affair is completed to the
bullhead papa’s satisfaction. Now stand clear all thievish prowlers!
Let anything of reasonable size venture near—then head down, and
plying all his propellers to their utmost power, he charges at them,
driving his horns in to the very hilt; free again, seizes hold with
his mouth—thus biting and stabbing, until he kills or routs his foe.
I am not able to say exactly how long the eggs are incubating, but, as
nearly as I could observe them (in the Sumass and Chilukweyuk streams),
in about eight weeks the young escape from the egg-house. The females
were invariably driven away, with the same ferocity as other unwelcome
guests, from the depositing the spawn to the exit of the infant fish:
then old and young disappear into deeper water, and are seldom seen
again.
During the winter, I constantly obtained the bullheads from out the
seine-nets used in Esquimalt Harbour to procure fish for the supply
of Victoria market. Rejected by the fishermen, the Indians greedily
gathered up the despised fishes, broiled them over the lodge-fire
empaled on a slender twig, then feasted right-royally on the grilled
remains of the spiny martyrs.
The genus _Centridermichthys_ is characterised as follows:—Head more
or less depressed, rounded anteriorly; head and body covered with soft
and scaleless skin, more or less studded with prickles or granulations;
teeth in the jaws, on the vomer and palatine bones.
_Centridermichthys asper_ (_Coltus asper_, Rich. F. B. A. ‘Fishes,’ p.
295), the Prickly-skinned Bullhead.—_Sp. Ch._: Gill-openings separated
beneath, by an isthmus; three opercular spines; crown with very small
warts, back of the body with very minute spines; colour light yellowish
brown, thickly dotted with spots nearly black. The length of the adult
fish is seldom over three-and-a-half inches.
These tiny bullheads are common in all the streams east and west of the
Cascades. They are not fond of going very far from the sea, but leave
the larger rivers soon after entering them, seeking the clear rivulets
and shallow lakes. In the streams flowing through the Sumass and
Chilukweyuk prairies, in those flowing into Puget’s Sound, and north
of it on the mainland to Fort Simpson, and in all the streams draining
Vancouver Island, the prickly-skinned bullhead can be easily found in
July and August. Similar in habits, and frequenting the same localities
as the preceding, are several species described in the Appendix.
THE ROCK COD.—Belonging to the same family is the rock cod, as it
is usually styled by the fishermen who provide the Victoria and San
Francisco markets; one of the best and daintiest table-fish caught
in the seas round Vancouver Island. It often attains a considerable
size, and being in tolerable abundance, constitutes an article of some
commercial value.
As numbers are taken all through the year, and as I never saw them
in fresh-water, it is fair to assume they are strictly marine. Their
appearance is not prepossessing, giving one the idea of being all head,
fins, and bones, as they lie gasping on the shingle; an error of the
eye only, as you discover when testing the substance and quality of a
large one, smoking hot from the fish-kettle. Three species are commonly
offered for sale in the markets, one of which is also taken in Japanese
seas. They vary in size; I have often seen a rock cod thirty inches in
length. Biting greedily at any bait, they are constantly caught by the
Indians when trolling for salmon.
The one usually seen in the Victoria markets is _Sebastes inermis_
(Cuv. and Val., p. 346; Faun. Japon., ‘Poiss.,’ p. 47, pl. 21, figs. 3,
4), the Weak-spined Rock Cod.—_Sp. Ch._: The height of the body equals
the length of the head; the upper surface of the head flat, with some
depressed spines behind the orbit. The fourth and fifth dorsal spines
are the largest, longer than those of the anal, and nearly half the
length of the head. Colour, uniform brownish.
THE CHIRUS.—On the fish-stalls in Victoria and San Francisco markets
the visitor may generally see, lying by the side of the dingy, spiny
rock cod, a handsome, shapely fish, about eighteen inches in length.
Its sides, though somewhat rough, rival in beauty many a tropical
flower: clad in scales, adorned with colours not only conspicuous for
their brilliancy, but grouped and blended in a manner one sees only
represented in the plumage of a bird, the wing of a butterfly, or the
petals of an orchid, this ‘ocean swell’ is known to the ichthyologist
as the Chirus—the _Terpugh_ (a file) of the Russians—the _Idyajuk_ of
the Aleutian Islanders—the _Tath-le-gest_ of the Vancouver Islanders.
Quite as delicious to the palate as pleasant to the eye, the chirus
is altogether a most estimable fish. Its habit is to frequent rocky
places, particularly where long ledges of rocks are left bare at
low-water, and sheltered at the same time from the surge of the sea
in rough weather. Here the chirus loves to disport his gaily-dressed
person, amidst the gardens of sea plants: for in these gardens dwell
jellyfish, tender little crustaceans, soft-bodied chitons, crisp
shrimps, and juicy annalides—all dainty viands, on which this gay
lounger delights to regale himself.
At low-tide, when strolling over the slippery rocks that everywhere
gird the eastern side of Vancouver Island, in the larger rock-pools
I was certain to see lots of these fish imprisoned, having lingered
imprudently at their feasts. This indulgence constantly costs the idler
his life: gulls, herons, shags also prowl over the rocks, well knowing
what admirable preserves these aquariums are. Once spied out, it is
of no avail to hide amidst the seaweeds, or cower under the shelving
ledges draped with coralines. The large pincer-like beak follows, nips
him across the back; a skilful jerk gets the head first—then down a
lane he goes from which no chirus ever returns.
We might as reasonably attempt to describe, the flushing changing
colours of the Aurora Borealis as seen in high latitudes, or the
phosphorescence of a tropical sea, or the wing of the diamond-beetle,
as to hope by word-painting to give the faintest conception of the
colourings that adorn the chirus: red, blue, orange, and green are
so mingled, that the only thing I can think of as a comparison is a
floating flower-bed, and even then the gardener’s art, in grouping, is
but a bungle contrasted with Nature’s painting!
There are three species of chirus common along the island and mainland
coasts. The one usually sold is _Chirus hexagrammus_ (Cuv., Regne An.,
‘Poiss.,’ pl. 83), the Six-lined Chirus.—_Sp. Ch._: A skinny tentacle
over each orbit; palatine teeth none; two muciferous channels, between
the lateral line and dorsal fin; scales ciliated.
FLATFISH.—In all the muddy estuaries and on the sandy flats about
Puget’s Sound, at the mouths of the Columbia and Fraser rivers, several
species of flatfish are found in great abundance. These fish have
always formed an important article of food to all the sea-fishing
Indians, and, since the influx of white settlers, are caught for the
supply of the Victoria and San Francisco markets.
Only the larger species are taken with hook and line, the smaller
flounders being usually speared by the Indians. And a pleasant sight
it is, too, to watch a little fleet of canoes, each one slowly paddled
by a dusky squaw gliding along the sandy shallows, the spearman in the
bow ‘prodding’ for the fish hidden in the mud and sand. The flounder,
thus disturbed, scuds along the bottom, and stirs up the sand like a
trail, marking its line of progress. The sharp-eyed savage notes the
spot where the dirt-line ends, paddles up to it, dashes in the spear,
and, quick as thought, transfers the ‘_flat_’ fish from its fancied
hiding-place to the bottom of the canoe. Immense numbers are taken in
this manner at every tide. The following are the species usually sold
in the markets:—
_Pleuronectes bilineates_ (_Platessa bilineata_, Ayres, in Proc. Calif.
Acad., 1855, p. 40), the Two-lined Flatfish.—_Sp. Ch._: The height
of the body is a little less than one-half of the entire length, the
length of the head nearly one-fourth; snout somewhat projecting, not
continuous in direction with the descending profile of the nape; eyes
on the right side large, their diameter being two-sevenths of the
length of the head, separated by a strong prominent ridge, which is
partly covered with scales; lower jaw prominent; a single even row of
strong blunt teeth in each jaw, less developed on the coloured side
than on the blind; scales very conspicuous, those on the head and on
the tail ciliated; lateral line with a strong curve above the pectoral:
a second series of pores commences above the eye, and follows the
dorsal profile to the vertical, from the opercular angle, where it
terminates—it communicates with the true lateral line by a branch;
the dorsal fin rises over about the anterior third of the orbit, and
terminates at a distance from the caudal equal to the breadth of the
eye; anal spine prominent; pectoral fin half as long as the head.
Colour, light greyish-brown, with lighter blotches. More abundant at
San Francisco than at Vancouver Island and north of the Fraser.
_Pleuronectes digrammus_ (Günther, Brit. Mus. Catalogue, ‘Fishes,’),
the Two-lined Flounder (Nov. Spec.).—_Sp. Ch._: The height of the body
rather less than one-third of the entire length, the length of the
head two-ninths, and that of the caudal two-thirteenths; snout with
the lower jaw prominent, equal in length to the diameter of the eye,
which is nearly one-fifth of that of the head; maxillary as long as
the eye; the upper jaw with a series of twenty-eight small truncated
teeth on the blind side, those of the other side being few in number
and very small; eyes separated by a very narrow, naked, bony ridge;
scales small but conspicuous; lateral line, with a very slight curve
above the pectoral; a second series of pores commences above the eye,
and follows the dorsal profile to the twenty-sixth dorsal ray, where
it terminates; dorsal and anal rays quite smooth—the dorsal commences
above the anterior third of the orbit, and terminates at a distance
from the caudal nearly equal to the depth of the free portion of the
tail; anal spine prominent—the longest dorsal rays are somewhat
behind the middle of the fin, rather shorter than the pectoral, and
half as long as the head; uniform brownish; length, eight inches. I
obtained this new species of flounder in Mackenzie’s Arm, a tidal inlet
continuous with Victoria Harbour.
_Pleuronichthys guttulatus_ (Gerard, in Proc. Acad., Nat. Sc.
Philadel., 1856, p. 137, and U. S. Pacif. R. R. Expd., ‘Fishes,’
p. 152).—_Sp. Ch._: The height of the body is somewhat more than
one-half of the total length (with the caudal), the length of the head
one-fourth, and that of the caudal one-fifth. The interorbital space
is exceedingly narrow, and raised ridgelike; snout very blunt and
short; mouth small, with the jaws even. The dorsal commences above the
anterior part of the orbit, and terminates at a short distance from
the caudal; its longest rays are on and behind the middle of the fin.
Scales, very small, cycloid. The lateral line is slightly arched above
the pectoral; a similar series of pores runs from the upper eye, along
the base of the dorsal fin, to about the middle of the length. There is
a connecting branch between both lines, across the occipital region.
Colour greyish, densely dotted with black and white spots. Common at
Vancouver Island and San Francisco. For further description of species,
_vide_ Appendix, vol. ii.