HABITS AND INSTINCTS OI? FISH. 251 



In order to excite in the minds of his guests a 

 greater degree of interest in their proposed amuse- 

 ment, Dr. Hastings gave them some information 

 respecting the formation, habits, and instincts offish. 

 He observed that their gills supplied the place of 

 lungs, and are filled with innumerable very delicate 

 vessels, generally divided into four layers, which 

 are attached to a corresponding number of little 

 bones. The scales are covered externally with a 

 sort of slime, which, as Blumenbach says, appears 

 to be in a great measure excreted from small cavi- 

 ties placed in a line along each side of the body. 

 That fish are capable of hearing, there can now be 

 little doubt from various experiments which have 

 been tried to ascertain the fact. Their sense of 

 smelling also, is very acute. Little can be known 

 of their mental faculties. Some fish are more cun- 

 ning and cautious than others, while the perch and 

 trout are readily tamed and become very docile. 

 The miller's thumb (Cottus Gobio) is the only one 

 in England which appears to have any natural 

 affection for its young. This little fish deposits its 

 spawn in a hole, and watches it until the young 

 ones are hatched. The Goramy of India, are stated 

 by General Hardwicke, in his account of that fish, 

 to watch with the most active vigilance the margins 

 of the spot which they had selected and prepared 

 for depositing their spawn, driving away with vio- 

 lence every other fish which approached their 



