iS6 OUTLINES OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 



pected largesse; and that instances have been 

 authenticated — in several cases under my own ob- 

 servation — in which fish evidently recognized 

 their keepers, as well by sight as by sound : thus 

 clearly leading to the inference that, at any rate 

 in many positions, when we can see the fish, the 

 fish can see us — a hint to the fisherman worth 

 noting. 



We next come to the sense of Hearing. Much 

 has been written at different times by clever ana- 

 tomists on the subject of the sense of hearing in 

 fish, some denying it entirely, and others asserting 

 its existence in a greater or less degree. The 

 former base their arguments mainly on the ab- 

 sence, in most species, of any external auricular 

 orifice, and the latter upon the internal structure 

 of the head, and practical experiment. 



The probabilities of the question would appear 

 to be with those who maintain the existence of the 

 sense, inasmuch as fish, though generally wanting 

 the Eustachian tube, and tympanal bones, have 

 internal ears, or sacs which, if they do not answer 

 the purpose of hearing or its equivalent, cannot be 

 proved to answer any other. As instances of 

 proved hearing in fish, Mr. Yarrell mentions 

 that the Chinese, who breed large quantities of 

 gold fish, call them with a whistle to receive their 

 food. Sir Joseph Banks used to collect his fish by 

 sounding a bell ; and Carew, the historian of 



