THE DRAWING OF THE SEINE. 161 



are all essentially diurnal in habit. Their bright colors, 

 as a sexual attraction, are essential to their welfare, but 

 are, at the same time, detrimental to their safety. Have 

 we any reason for believing that these fishes seek to 

 avoid exposure to enemies when thus arrayed in extra- 

 conspicuous dress? I think we have, in the fact that 

 usually they deposit their ova and milt in rapid waters. 

 Waters with a constantly rippling and troubled surface 

 certainly protect them from such enemies as the king- 

 fisher, fish -eating mammals, and probably from frogs 

 and snakes. By drawing a seine through turbulent 

 water at the foot of a mill-dam, I have frequently found 

 scores of splendidly colored cyprinoids ; and finally, 

 very soon after spawning, all these extra tints fade out 

 utterly, and the fishes return to their accustomed haunts. 

 These facts certaiiily seem to indicate that they are 

 aware of the disadvantage of unusually bright colors, 

 which, notwithstanding, are essential to the perpetuation 

 of their kind. 



The corninon banded sunfish, a silvery white species, 

 has a remarkable control over the color of the black 

 vertical bands that ordinarily form so conspicuous a 

 feature of the fish. At times when the water is rather 

 clear, and the amount of vegetation not abundant, this 

 sunfish will fade out, and show such ashen, faintly 

 streaked sides, that it might almost pass for a dead leaf; 

 but roused to action by the approach of other fishes, or 

 the finding of food, the dull sides glisten like polished 

 metal, and the faint bands become as black as ebony. 

 Certainly these great and sudden changes are not in- 

 voluntary. They cannot be likened to blushing, but are 



