FLAT-FISHES. 259 



however, retained one mussel in the basin, and 

 offered it to the Cod, in order to see how, with 

 its broad mouth and short tongue, it would reach 

 it. The Cod blew into the basin (a small slop- 

 basin), and the re-action forced the mussel out of 

 it, and the Cod seized it immediately. This fish 

 allowed me to pat it on the back, and rested its 

 head upon the stone on which I was standing, just 

 like a dog. The other fish came to me and fed 

 on the mussels I threw to them, but would not 

 let me handle them, though I patted some of 

 them."* 



The analogous case of the Elephant that blew 

 the sixpence out of the angle of the shelf on 

 which it was placed, when it was too close to the 

 wall to admit the finger of his trunk, will doubt- 

 less occur to many of our readers. We are, how- 

 ever, much more surprised to hear of such an 

 efibrt of reasoning power in a Cod-fish than in an 

 Elephant. 



Family VII. Pleuronectid^. 



(Flat-fisJies.) 



The Turbot, the Sole, and the Flounder, are 

 so familiar to every one, as the commonest fishes 

 at our tables, that probably few think of the 

 extraordinary anomaly presented by their struc- 

 ture, or remember that they are perfectly unique 

 among vertebrate animals. We see that one side 

 is dark and positively coloured, the other is white 

 or slightly tinged with a fieshy hue, and we are 

 apt to suppose that they offer no greater pecu- 

 * Scenes of Country Life, 62. 



