MOST FISHES ABE SHOKT-SIGHTED. 33 



stricted idea of its resemblance to nature, the likeness must 

 be scarcely perceptible, owing to the difference of motion and 

 the great variety of directions in which the angler draws his 

 flies, according to the nature and locality of the current and 

 the prevailing direction of the wind." 



The sight of fishes is like that of all animals with round 

 and convex eyes. If the angler will stand quite still in the 

 water, fish will not fear to congregate about him, or to flap 

 his legs with their fins ; but with his slightest motion they 

 dart to their hiding-places. The convexity of the eye pro- 

 duces short-sightedness in man as well as in quadrupeds, 

 birds, and fishes. The round eye is inferior to the almond- 

 shaped for distinguishing form : thus round-eyed animals and 

 fishes mistake a man for an inanimate object, and, from their 

 shortness of vision, approach him without fear. These gen- 

 eral and specific reasons convince me that fishes are short- 

 sighted, and that, while quick to detect action, they are slow 

 to distinguish form. 



SECTION FIFTH. 



ON TASTE IN FISHES. 



The sense of taste in both birds and fishes, which subsist 

 on similar food, is less acute than in other animals, a circum- 

 stance strongly indicated by the hard, gristly texture of the 

 tongue when it exists, which it may scarcely be said to do 

 in all fishes, though it is very distinct in the Cyprinidce, and 

 rather less so in the genus Salmo. 



Dr. Rennie states that numerous experiments made by him 

 on birds whose food consists of small fruit and insects, which 

 they swallow without breaking, leads him to conclude that 

 they choose some and reject others, not by taste, but by 

 touch, probably aided by smell ; and he adds, " 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, that, even if they possessed acute taste, it could 

 not aid them in the discrimination." 



C 



