Art. VI.] Herrick, Tastc in Fishes. 73 



tous pelvic fins are so held that their tips drag the bottom. 

 These fin rays are quite long and they are usually directed ob- 

 liquely forward, outward and downward with the two branches 

 of each fin widely divaricated, so that the four tips touch the 

 ground in a line transverse to the body axis at about the level 

 of the mental barblet. In this way the bottom under the fish 

 and for a short distance on either side is thoroughly explored 

 as the fish swims over it, and all food particles with which the 

 barblet or free fin rays come in contact are taken by a quick 

 and precise movement similar to that set off in the siluroids by 

 contact with their barblets. Bits of meat or clam on the end 

 of a slender wire could be laid on the bottom of the tank and 

 then slowly moved up under or behind the fish and the reflex 

 from the vental fins tested in this way. Such experiments, 

 however, had to be made with great caution and many times 

 repeated to rule out possible visual sensations which likewise 

 call forth an immediate reflex. 



Bateson ('90, a) records similar reactions with the rockling 

 {Motelld), a gadoid fish with the same general structure and 

 distribution of terminal buds as the hake, but with better de- 

 veloped barblets. (On the structure of the pelvic fins of Mo- 

 tella compare Bateson's account on p. 214 with that on p. 234 

 of the same volume). Bateson, moreover, got the same reflex 

 with fishes which had been blinded, and I have not thought it 

 necessary to repeat this experiment, for my fishes give suffi- 

 ciently clear evidence that this reflex from the fins is wholly in- 

 dependent of vision. We have, however, to investigate the 

 parts played by tactile, gustatory and olfactory sensations. 



Bateson's remarks ('90, a, p. 214) in this connection on 

 the rockling may be quoted here. The three-bearded and 

 the five-bearded rocklings are nocturnal and lie still all day. 

 "Generally, both the animals take no notice of food until it 

 has lain in the water some minutes, when they start off in 

 search of it. The rockling searches by setting its filamentous 

 pelvic fins at right angles to the body, and then swimming 

 about feehng with them. If the fins touch a piece of fish or 

 other soft body, the rockling turns its head round and snaps it 



