AFFECTION AND ANGER. lxXV 



Manifestations of anger have been well described in the accounts we 

 possess of the Fighting Fishes of. Siain. . After remarking on the cock- 

 fights of that country, Sir J. Browning adds that there is a little bellicose 

 fish which attacks its fellows with great ferocity, bristling its fins, and 

 exhibiting the most intense excitement. One of these, seeing its reflection 

 in a glass, will violently advance head foremost against the shadow. Dr. 

 Cantor observed that when this fish, Macropodus pugnax, is in a quiescent 

 state, with its fins at rest the dull colours present nothing remarkable. 

 But should two be brought within sight of each other, the little creatures 

 become suddenly excited, the raised fins and the whole body shine with 

 metallic colours of dazzling beauty, while the projecting gill-membranes, 

 waving like a black frill round the throat, add something grotesque to the 

 general appearance. In this state it makes repeated darts at its antagonist, 

 but both when taken out of each others' sight instantly become quiet. Even 

 the little sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus, of our own fresh waters show 

 great combative propensities (vol. i, p. 241), and after a fight between two 

 examples a strange alteration takes place almost immediately in the 

 defeated party ; his gallant bearing forsakes him, his gay colours fade away, 

 he becomes again speckled and ugly, and. hides his disgrace among his 

 peaceable companions, who occupy together that part of the tub which 

 their tyrants have not taken possession of. He is, moreover, for some time 

 the constant object of his conqueror's persecution. Here we perceive how 

 the disgrace of defeat affects the spirit of the vanquished, which, reacting 

 on his health, causes his brilliant hues to fade away. The victor, on the 

 other hand, exulting in his victory, becomes more resplendent; he does not 

 forget his triumph, and considers it no disgrace to occasionally it lord over 

 his fallen foe. . 



Everyone who possesses an aquarium is aware how spiny-rayed fishes on 

 being angry or frightened at once elevate their fins. The globe-fish, 

 Tetrodon (vol. ii, page 271), are able to inflate their bodies when the spinate 

 dermal scutes become erected; also the file-fish, Balistes (vol. ii, page 

 267), has been observed by Mr. Whitmee to swim rapidly past its antago- 

 nist and graze its side with its file-like lateral spines. In the Ohio a sheat 

 fish or siluroid is found in which its first dorsal ray is strong and bony, 

 and employed to kill others of a smaller size, for which purpose it swims 

 beneath the fish it intends to attack, then suddenly rises and wounds it 

 repeatedly in the belly. I have personally observed an Indian siluroid, 

 Macrones vittatus, lying on the wet grass, which on being touched erected 

 its dorsal and pectoral spines, and also emitted a sound resembling the 

 buzzing of a bee, which was evidently a sign of anger or terror. Couch 

 observed of our sticklebacks, Gasterosteus, that the bite of these little furies 

 is so severe that he had frequently known it, when inflicted on the tail, to 



