The Singing Fish 321 



to investigate it, and was taken out by a professional fisher- 

 man, who told the story, and was well rewarded by hearing 

 some remarkable sounds which undoubtedly came from 

 these fishes. 



I was able to demonstrate that the drum could utter 

 sounds by watching the big fishes in a tank, and repeatedly 

 heard the sounds. They came as deep sonorous drummings, 

 so loud that the effect was more than startling, especially 

 once at midnight alone in a large tank room when the sounds 

 came booming through the air. It is thought that these 

 fishes clap their bony shell crushers together producing the 

 sounds, which are far from " songs." One might construe 

 the murmur of the midshipman, the note of the gizzard shad 

 as music, but never the ponderous booming of the drum that 

 is said by superstitious seamen to call the long roll for those 

 who die in the deep sea. 



In the rivers and lakes of the Middle West, the fresh- 

 water drum, or thunder-pumper, groans and drums audibly 

 in his own fashion. In fact, to do some trick or another of this 

 sort is the privilege of nearly all members of the family of 

 SciccnidcF, and many of the related groups, as the names 

 ronco, roncador (snorer), grunt, drum, croaker, thunder- 

 pumper, and the like clearly indicate. But none of these 

 show songbursts as fresh and free as a canary bird, and none 

 can compete with even the poorest of feathered singers. 



