BRIEF NOTES ON FISHES. 405 



with both food and slaughter ; the latter lies in wait and 

 seizes the first to come within easy reach. In these cases, 

 the social instinct works them no good. Can it be that 

 each individual, knowing the danger to which it is ex- 

 posed, seeks the company of others, feeling that thereby 

 its own safety is increased ? This is crediting them with 

 intelligence beyond warrantable limits, perhaps, and as- 

 suming that they live their lives in a state of perpetual 

 fear. Imperfect as is creation, it is hard to believe that 

 any creatures are so unfortunately situated as this implies. 

 Nevertheless, their actions, at times, are only explicable 

 upon such an assumption. 



The roach is an example of how far coloration may 

 vary among fishes of the same species, and therefore how 

 small reliance can be placed upon it in determining a 

 " species." Years ago, De Kay described as not only dis- 

 tinct species, but as belonging to different genera, indi- 

 viduals of this cyprinoid received from different locali- 

 ties, and presenting marked variation of color and some 

 minor differences of form. In rambling about this neigh- 

 borhood I have found a great many roach in the most 

 widely differing localities. I have found them in clear, 

 cold, rapid waters, that would charm a trout, and in green- 

 coated pools of such warm and thick waters that even 

 frogs declined to enter them. In the former case, the 

 fish were bright, silvery, and sleek, and darted to and fro, 

 when disturbed, with all the animation of a trout ; in 

 the latter, they were of a dull, leaden hue, without a 

 trace of metallic luster, and more sluggish and sleepy 

 than tadpoles. Even the general increased vivacity of 

 fishes in spring-time does not inspire these mud-haunting 

 roach. They are thoroughly dull, listless, and lazy, and 

 bear evidence of the direct influence of a depressing en- 

 vironment upon them. The only seemingly contradictory 



