270 How to obtain it. 



the stomach and the air bladder, so that on inserting a tube and 

 inflating the stomach, the air passes on and distends the air 

 bladder also, and, what is more remarkable still, the posterior end 

 of the bladder is found to narrow into a tube, which ends in an 

 external aperture near the anal fin. So that the ear of the herring 

 may be said to be connected with an external aperture. Many 

 other fishes have the connection between the air bladder and the 

 organs of hearing ; but the external aperture connecting with the 

 air bladder seems to be absent, except in the herring. 



It has been suggested that the air bladder may act as a drum, 

 and that sounds may be transmitted from it to the internal ear. 

 Be this as it may, the question is one of great interest, and is well 

 worthy of investigation. It is quite likely that many fishes which 

 have not yet been thoroughly examined may be found to possess 

 the same external aperture that occurs in the herring, but I cannot 

 find any trace of it among the Salmonidas. As far as regards the 

 members of this family with which I am acquainted (and I know 

 a good many of them) I should certainly say that they were very 

 " hard of hearing " indeed. I am alluding now to sounds made 

 in the air and not in the water. I have often had the opportunity 

 of testing the matter, as for instance, in the case of firing a gun 

 close to the fish, and in many other ways. If they see nothing 

 they take not the slightest notice. 



Livingstone Stone, the great American authority, is also very 

 much of the same opinion, and says in his Domesticated Tiout 

 (p. 221) : "I will not say that trout cannot hear; but this I will 

 say with the greatest positiveness, for I have tested it repeatedly, 

 that they are not frightened at noises, however loud, nor do they 

 pay the slightest attention to them. You may place your mouth 

 directly over the trout in a pond, and, if they do not see you, you 

 may scream with all your might, or ring a bell as loud as 

 you please, and the trout will not move a fin to show that they 

 are either frightened or attracted, or that they have in any way 

 noticed it." 



Seth Green, in his Trout Culture (p. 58), says that trout 

 cannot hear, and that " they will not stir a fraction of an inch at 

 the sound of a gun fired one foot above their heads." This is, of 

 -course, provided they see no flash or smoke. With regard to the 



