86 INTRODUCTION. 



spirit. A not less striking alteration almost imme- 

 diately takes place in the defeated party ; his gallant 

 bearing forsakes him ; his gay colours fade away, 

 and he becomes again speckled and ugly. Once 

 more, previous to death, they reassume all those 

 brilliant colours which they lost from defeat, al- 

 though they are not so clear and distinct as when 

 in the height of their power/' (Mag. of Nat. Hist. 

 lii. 329.) 



PARASITIC FUNGI IN FISHES. 



The attacks made by Parasites, animal and vege- 

 table, on the whole series of the animal kingdom, hav- 

 ing lately greatly excited the attention of Foreign 

 and British Naturalists, we shall briefly allude to the 

 subject, and notice a few of the extraordinary facts 

 which are being discovered, and which, as remarked 

 by Professor Eschricht of Copenhagen, are like the 

 first discovered plants of a terra incognita, which 

 promise the richest harvest to future inquirers. 



On the wide field of Animal parasites we dare 

 scarcely touch : but how startling the proposition 

 of the eminent Naturalist just named, that the 

 Fauna of these parasites is probably as extended as 

 all the other faunas put together ; a statement which 

 is all the more probable from the fact which seems 

 established, that each species selects generally cer- 

 tain animals only, and in these, certain organs only, 

 ; or their abode. This is true of the Lernea elongata, 

 whose anatomy v /as examined by our friend Pro- 

 fessor Grant and which selects the eye of the Ore en- 



