442 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



far as I could determine, by a chain of air-bubbles rising 

 to the surface, as is always seen to accompany the sound 

 uttered by the chub-sucker or cat-fish. This same noise, 

 or one very similar, was made by them when captured 

 and taken from the water, and in both instances may 

 have been involuntary. From their peculiar anatomy 

 they are an exceedingly interesting species with reference 

 to the subject of voice ; and I regret that my experience 

 when keeping them in an aquarium did not confirm my 

 suspicions when studying them in their proper habitat. 

 When my lampreys were in an aquarium, I occasionally 

 heard a prolonged buzzing sound that had many charac- 

 teristics of what I have considered voice in other species, 

 but it w r as too monotonous and protracted to be consid- 

 ered a voluntarily produced sound or vocal effort. If 

 the more voice-like sounds heard, as mentioned, are char- 

 acteristic of their breeding season, then it probably is 

 strictly a " love-call," and certainly, when mated, these 

 fishes are very amorous. 



In all the instances so far mentioned, of voluntarily 

 expressed sounds or utterances of fishes, they have been 

 referred to in connection with their ordinary breeding 

 habits ; not that they are never heard at other times, but 

 because these "calls" or "songs," or whatever they 

 should be considered, are a marked feature of that sea- 

 son. In our common eel we have an instance of a fish 

 possessing unmistakable evidences of voice, yet which 

 may be said to have no breeding season, at least when 

 found far inland. Without inquiring into the particulars 

 of the recently ascertained breeding habits of the eel, it 

 is sufficient here to say that, in countless thousands, they 

 pass from the sea up our rivers, through the most insignifi- 

 cant inland brooks and often into isolated ponds. From 

 these ponds they seldom wander, although not nccessa- 



