From: giraffe@longneck.inc (giraffe~⇔)
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.pictures.artpics
Subject: Re: Critters - KitchenBert_AndSoTheyBuild10-iej.jpg
Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2000 03:14:32 GMT

>*
>*From a educational book for children
>*And So They Build
>*Written & illustrated by Bert Kitchen
>*
>*ISBN 1-56402-502-0


KitchenBert_AndSoTheyBuild10-iej

A three-spined stickleback always protects his eggs
and so he builds......

The three-spinded stickleback is found in ponds,
slow-flowing streams, and sometimes even pools along
the seashore.

During the mating season, the male chooses a shallow,
weedy place. He makes a small dip in the bed of the
stream with his snout and fills it with vegetation,
mixing it with a gluey secretion from his kidneys so
that it sticks together in a loose ball. Then he
pushes through it to form a tunnel.

When a female approaches, he performs a kind of court-
ship dance, to which she eventually responds by swimming
into his nest so that her head and tail stick out at
either end. In this position she lays some of her eggs.

A successful male attracts several females to lay eggs
in his nest. Once he has fertilized the eggs, he guards
them for about ten days until they hatch, and continues
to care for the tiny fish for some time afterward.