FOOD OF FISHES. 



Taste in Fishes. 



There can be no question that the sense of taste in 

 fishes, as well as in those birds which live upon similar 

 food, is less acute than in other animals, a circumstance 

 strongly indicated by the hard, gristly texture of the 

 tongue when it exists, as it can scarcely be said to do 

 in all fishes, though it is, as M. De Blainville justly 

 remarks, very distinct in the carp, and rather less so in 

 the salmon. 



The numerous experiments which I have made upon 

 birds whose food consists of small fruit and insects, 

 which they swallow without breaking, lead me to con- 

 clude, that they choose some and reject others, not 

 by taste but by touch, probably aided by smell, and I 

 have no doubt it is the same with fishes ; at least it is 

 obvious from their so generally swallowing their food 

 without chewing or bruising it, even if they possessed 

 acute taste, that it could not aid them in the discri- 

 mination. 



The peculiarly large tongue in the carp accordingly 

 is traceable to its feeding in part upon water plants, 

 which it must, as in the case of grass, tear in pieces 

 though it has no teeth, and it is probable it has been 

 thus providentially furnished with a more acute organ 

 of taste, to prevent its being poisoned by eating water- 

 hemlock, or other deleterious plants. 



That all fish are not thus provided with taste suffi- 

 ciently acute to enable them to reject what is poison- 

 ous, appears from the practice of poachers in poisoning 



