294 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OP GLASGOW. 



please the eye. We may therefore infer that in 

 fishes the dehcate sense of taste and flavour is not 

 wanting. We may excuse them for biting at a 

 metal frog or leaping at a tinsel fly, for there they 

 are misled by appearance — a deception that can 

 only be practised while the lure is in motion and 

 is darted at without a moment's time for scrutiny. 

 Seeing that fishes do make a choice of food — and 

 doubtless they have the means of regulating that 

 choice, — may it not be assumed as probable tliat 

 some unpalatable flavour possessed by the mollusc 

 is its chief means of defence ? 



