232 CHANGE OF COLOUR. 



silvery ground, followed by a dull, opaque, leaden grey. 

 One poet has said, 



" parting day 



Dies like the Dolphin, whom each pang imbues 

 With a new colour as it gasps away, 

 The last still loveliest, till 'tis gone and all is grey." 



There are many other fish that change colour several 

 times before they die ; I have seen species of Pimelodus 

 or Cat-fish, change from a warm and glowing smalt, 

 during the last few pangs, to a dull leaden hue, losing, 

 at the same time, the delicate pinky tinge of the sides 

 and abdomen. The common Sucking-fish (Echineis 

 Eemora) from a brown, bright, shining, blackish colour, 

 changes, even in the water, to a leaden hue, and, as it 

 dies, assumes a tancolour, which grows paler by degrees 

 until it fades into a dirty white. 



In calms, the South Atlantic abounds in Acalephce, 

 and much amusement may be derived, in a long sea 

 voyage, from the observation of these beautiful organisms ; 

 for endless are the moulds in which prolific Nature has 

 cast them. Some are shaped like a mushroom, others 

 assume the form of a riband, others are globular, while 

 some are circular, flat, or bell-shaped, and others again 

 resemble a bunch of berries. Their motions are generally 

 tardy, their sensations dull, and directed entirely to the 

 procuring of food. They often float without any apparent 

 animation, trusting to the winds and waves to waft 

 them about, and to carry them their food. Some keep 

 a little beneath the surface, and propel themselves by 

 contracting and dilating their pellucid discs, while others, 

 as the Seroe, have a rapid rotatory motion. They have 



