434 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



Although we are all familiar with the lazy drum-fish 

 of our coast and some may have heard those grunting 

 sounds that have given this species its common name 

 the little fishes of our inland brooks and the more preten- 

 tious denizens of our rivers are looked upon as voiceless 

 creatures, so that if they have ideas, they must express 

 them by movements entirely, not of one portion, but of 

 the whole body. In fact, however, the conditions that 

 obtain among insects and birds, as mentioned in the quo- 

 tation from Dr. Peschel, are, in a measure, applicable to 

 some of our fishes ; at least, in my studies of the habits 

 of our more common species, I have been led to believe 

 that certain sounds made by these fishes are really vocal 

 efforts, and that their utterance is for the purpose of ex- 

 pressing an idea ; and, furthermore, I am of the opinion 

 that these sounds are closely connected with their breed- 

 ing habits, although I have heard them at other seasons. 



Probably no one has failed to notice the brilliant col- 

 ors of the restless red-fin, as it darts to and fro through 

 the clear waters of a crystal brook, or the bright orange- 

 tinted fins of the silvery roach, that ere summer has 

 passed pale to dull yellow and lose all their glow ; but 

 while with all our fishes there is at one time of the year 

 a deepening of every tint, this is in no wise comparable 

 to the gorgeous hues Nature has vouchsafed to a certain 

 few. My studies of the habits of these common fishes 

 have led me to think that the bright colors of spring-time, 

 which are analogous to the breeding plumage of male 

 birds, might possibly bear the same relationship to vocal 

 sounds that the songs and plumage of birds do to each 

 other. With but few exceptions, our finest songsters are 

 dull-colored birds. Have our plainer-tinted fishes a com- 

 pensation for this attraction of color in the ability to ut- 

 ter sounds ? 



