470 



THE XORTIIEEX FORESTS. 



[Part IX. 



fiilliiig fully four notes, resembling the tones of harp 

 strings, and mingling hke those at Batticaloa, till they 

 produce a musical discord of great delicacy and sweet- 

 ness. The animals from which they proceed have not 

 been identified at either place, and the mystery remains 

 unsolved, whether those at Batticaloa are given forth 

 by fishes or by molluscs. 



Certain fishes are known to utter sounds when re- 

 moved from the water ^, and some are capable of 

 making noises when under it ^ ; but all the circum- 

 stances connected ^yiih. the sounds which I heard at 

 Batticaloa are unfavourable to the conjecture that they 

 were produced by either. 



Organs of hearing have been clearly ascertained to exist, 

 not only in fishes ^, but in moUusca. Li an oyster the 

 presence of an acoustic apparatus of the simplest possible 

 construction has been estabhshed by the discoveries of 

 Siebold ^, and from our knowledge of the reciprocal rela- 

 tions existino' between the faculties of hearino; and of 

 producing sounds, the ascertained existence of the one 



^ Tlie Cuckoo Gumard {Triglia 

 cuchIhs) and the inaigre {Scicena 

 aqiiila) utter soiuids wbeu taken out 

 of the Avater (Yaerell, \o\. i. p. 44, 

 107) ; and herringft when the net has 

 just been draAA-n have been observed 

 to do the same. This ett'ect has been 

 •ittributed to the escape of air from 

 the air bhidder, but no air Wadder 

 has been found in the Cottus, which 

 makes a simiLoi' noise. 



^ The iishenneu assert that a fish 

 about five inches in length, foimd in 

 the hike at Colombo, and Ciillcd by 

 them " mcHjooraJ^ makes a gTunt 

 when disturbed under water. Pal- 

 LEGOix, in his account of Siam, 

 speaks of a fisli rescm])ling- a sole, 

 but of brilliant colom-ing with black 

 spots, which the natives call the 

 " dog's tongue," that attaches 

 itself to the bottom of a boat, "et 

 fait entendre un bruit tres-sonore 

 et meme iiarmonieux." — Tt)m. i. p. 

 194. A iSilunis, found in tlic liio 



Parana, and called the " annado," is 

 remarkable for a harsh grating noise 

 when caught by hook or line, and 

 which can be distinctly heai-d when 

 the fish is beneath the water. — 

 Dakwin, Nat. Joum. ch. vii. Ai-is- 

 totle and ^Elian were awai-e of the 

 existence of this faculty in some 

 of the fishes of the Mediterranean. 

 Aristotle, Be Animal, lib. iv. ch. 

 ix. ; ^Eltax, De Xat. Anim., lib. x. 

 ch. xi. ; see also Pltn'T, lib. ix. ch. 

 vii., lib. xi. ch. cxiii. 5 Athenjeus, lib. 

 vii. ch. iii. vi. 



^ Agassiz, Comjjarative Physiology, 

 sec. ii. 158. 



* It consists of two round vesicles 

 containing fluid, and crystalline or 

 elliptic-al calcareous particles or oto- 

 lites, rcmark'ablo for their o.scilla- 

 toiT action in the liA'ing or recently 

 killed animal. Owen's Lectures on 

 the Comparative Anatomy and Phy- 

 siohi/ij of the Inveiiehrate Animals, 

 1855," p. "511-552. 



