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means which all bountiful nature has given to 

 fishes of escaping from their enemies, is to be 

 found in the truly wonderful power which many, 

 if not all possess, of changing their colour, and 

 accommodating it to that of the element in which 

 they are seen. This is easily observed in the 

 minnow, stickleback and perch, when kept in 

 a basin of water, particularly, however, in the 

 stickleback, in which the changes of colour are 

 more remarkable than in the minnow and perch, 

 inasmuch as they take place more rapidly. Even 

 in a few minutes, and under the naked eye, the 

 colours may be seen to fade or brighten, accord- 

 ing to the nature of the vessel in which they are 

 placed, " May not these changes of colour in 

 fish," asks Mr. Stark, by whom the observation 

 seems to have been first recorded, " depend much 

 upon the same cause as the changes which take 

 place in the colour of the camelion, and of which 

 no satisfactory account has yet been given ? When 

 crawling on plants, the keenest eye cannot detect 

 its presence, as being different in colour from 

 the exact shade of the leaves." Both exhibit a 

 most unanswerable example of the care of God 

 for the meanest of His creatures, and cannot be 

 for a moment contemplated without an over- 

 powering conviction of His all-provident wisdom 

 and goodness. 



What I have hitherto said of the functions of 

 fishes appertains to those only which are subser- 

 vient to the welfare of the individual: but no 

 less care has been bestowed upon the perpetua- 



