ATTITUDES EXPRESSING EMOTION 3 



reveals his suppressed excitement by the movements 

 of his tail. If our fox-terrier, going out of the gate, 

 suddenly drops on the ground with his head straight 

 out in front of him, we can guess he is going to have 

 a game with the mongrel next door, and he expresses 

 his joy by wagging his tail. Had the dog suddenly 

 pulled himself together and advanced on his toes with a 

 stiff and stilted gait, the hair on his back erect and his 

 tail quivering, it is fairly certain that in a few minutes 

 he would have been engaged in a fight. 



The attitudes and movements of the cat and the 

 dog convey to us these meanings because we are con- 

 stantly seeing them, and if, in the same way, we were 

 constantly observing fish, we could read by the move- 

 ments of then* fins and bodies, and by their changes 

 in colour, their intentions and emotions. 



Watch the pike lying outside a reed-bed. He rests 

 motionless on the bottom, with his body just off the 

 ground, supported on his fins. The muscles of his 

 body being relaxed, the line of the back shows a gentle 

 curve, and the calm, contemplative state of his mind 

 is revealed by the fact that the fin on his back is lying 

 flat. That the pike is on the watch all the time is 

 evident from the keen look in his eye. Suddenly, 

 without any movement of the body or other fins, the fin 

 on the back will become erect and fully extended, a sure 

 sign of mental agitation. Probably the pike has 

 detected a gleam of light in the distance as a dace 

 turning on his side reveals his presence. 



