The Singing Fish 319 



While I cannot pretend to have devoted any especial atten- 

 tion to the singing fishes, it has been a part of my good 

 luck on fishing trips to have heard a number of fishes utter 

 sounds of various kinds, and my opinion is, that in most 

 instances it is involuntary, though it is well to remember 

 that this is merely an individual layman's opinion, backed 

 by no scientific evidence. 



Many of the sharks utter sounds and especially one known 

 in California waters as the puff shark. If some of the 

 modern nature writers had been with me when I caught my 

 first specimen they would doubtless have interpreted its ac- 

 tions as a startling vocal argument in favor of immediate 

 release, as it began, the moment my boatman lifted it in, a 

 low but pronounced and distinct groan, the kind that would 

 appeal to the average angler as distinctly mournful and not 

 calculated to enhance the gaiety of the proceedings, and 

 whether it was an appeal for liberty or not, after my boat- 

 man, a calm, silent, philosophical man, and myself had 

 listened to it a moment, observing that the " singer " was 

 also swallowing air and swelling up at a prodigious rate, 

 we decided that it had earned its liberty, so we threw it back, 

 but it was now so like a balloon that it sailed away before 

 the wind, whirling about, calling to mind the porcupine 

 fish of the Tropical Seas, which has a singular habit. I 

 landed one of these fishes over two feet long once, 

 covered with sharp spines, some of which were two 

 inches in length, and when extended a most effective 

 defense. 



The fish had a very small mouth for a creature of its size 

 and uttered a peculiar sucking, choking sound audible a 

 distance of several feet. I noticed the same, or a very 

 similar sound, possibly more of a clucking, made by a little 

 cowfish, which was particularly helpless. 



It was so tame that I caught it in my hands in a big coral 

 head and when placed on deck it paddled its queer fins and 

 tail in the air, rolled its eyes and clicked at us, and this too 



