72 



Pouchet experimented with young turbots, and found that 

 if their eyes were blinded they did not change, thus proving 

 that the color cells were under the control of the nervous 

 system. Day records that young hybrid salmon raised at 

 Howietoun, in. which vision was more or less deficient, were 

 observed to be generally lighter in color than their fellows. 



The fishes of the sea are, as a rule, more brilliant than those 

 of the river or the lake. Warmth and light are favorable to 

 brightness and variety of hue. The fishes of circumpolar 

 regions, and those living at considerable depths, are, there- 

 fore, usually sombre, though occasionally they have iridescent 

 scales or plates of great brilliancy. 



In temperate regions, as along the coasts of the United 

 States, sombre ones are most common, but in summer many 

 sunny-hued strangers come up from the South. 



In the tropical seas, however, the greatest beauty is to be 

 found, and in some groups, such as the parrot fishes and the 

 wrasses, the most bizarre and astounding combinations of 

 masses of brilliant color. Harsh and inharmonious as they 

 seem, however, when imitated by the brush, they are never 

 unpleasing in the living creature. The West Indian fauna 

 has many wonderful fishes, such as the angel fish, Holacan- 

 thus ciliaris, and the Spanish lady, Bodiamis rufiis, but the 

 utmost possibilities of beauty are to be found only in the 

 Southern Pacific and the Indian Ocean. 



As Count Lacepede has so eloquently shown, in the pas- 

 sage already quoted, no class of animals has been so richly 

 endowed with color as the fishes, except it may be the insects, 

 and the effect of brilliancy in a fish is much greater on ac- 

 count of its larger size. Birds appear at a disadvantage in. 

 comparison, because — except in the metallic patches on the 

 throats of the humming bird, and a few similar instances — 

 the surfaces of their feathers are not so well adapted to dis- 

 play as the broad burnished sides of fishes, kept constantly 

 moist and lustrous by contact with water. 



The beauty of fishes can only be known to those who have 



