SENSES OF FISHES. 25 



than what I have mentioned of the carps; for the 

 pike is held to be a more wild, untameable fish than 

 the earp, and as it is a fish of prey, it has been 

 thought impossible to civilise it, or make it any way 

 familiar to mankind." 



In the case of fish-ponds, M. Lebault accordingly 

 advises not to suffer much shooting at wild fowl, inas- 

 much as he is of opinion that it frightens, injures, and 

 destroys the fish. The opinion, however theoretical 

 it may appear to some, seems to be proved by the 

 observations of our celebrated physiologist, Mr. John 

 Hunter, who describes the ear of fishes, always, he 

 says, important, if not new with him, as consisting of 

 a gristly substance, very hard or firm in parts, and in 

 some species crusted over with a thin plate of bone, so 

 as not to allow it to collapse. . The ear of fishes he 

 also remarked to possess the singular peculiarity of 

 increasing with the size of the individual, whereas, in 

 quadrupeds, the ear is nearly as large in the young 

 as in the full grown animal. Mr. -Hunter was not 

 contented with ascertaining the structure of the ear in 

 fishes, but experimented upon the power of the faculty 

 itself. 



" When in Portugal," says he, "in 1762, I observed 

 in a nobleman's garden near Lisbon a small fish-pond 

 full of different sorts of fish. Its bottom was level 

 with the ground, and was made by forming a bank all 

 round, with a shrubbery close to it ; whilst lying on 

 the bank seeing the fish, I desired a gentleman, who 

 was my companion, to go behind the shrubs, (that 

 there might be no reflection of light from the flash,) 



