436 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



proper, while of the eight of the right hand, all are be- 

 lieved to be so endowed. In the right-hand column of 

 Table II, it will be noticed that among the "voiceless" 

 species are included the four highly-colored fishes and 

 five others, all of silvery tints, which I have carefully 

 studied, and which have no habit, so far as I could dis- 

 cover, that would separate them from the species that are 

 without a voice. We can then scarcely avoid the conclu- 

 sion, that with fishes as with birds the brilliantly-colored 

 males, as a rule, are mostly if not wholly dependent on 

 their hues to attract the females during the amatory sea- 

 son. 



Those who may be familiar with the common chub 

 will doubtless urge, as an exception, that the peculiar 

 grunting sounds made by it when taken from the water 

 entitle it to a place among the fishes that are supposed to 

 have a voice. Cope, in his " Cyprinidse of Pennsylvania," 

 says, " When taken from the water, it (the chub) utters a 

 chirruping and croaking noise, more like a voice than 

 any sound heard from any other fresh-water fish of our 

 region." I have not, however, been able to detect this 

 sound except when removed from the water, and as the 

 fish is then out of its proper element and struggling, it 

 may be involuntary. The deep-bronze and golden-green 

 tints of the mud sunfish, too, might be urged as a case of 

 high coloration and a sexual attraction, and so it should 

 be voiceless ; but this fish, of all those observed by me, 

 has been the one most frequently to utter sounds volun- 

 tarily when confined in an aquarium. I doubt not there 

 are very many exceptions, and one great objection to the 

 suggestions I have made is that there probably is too great 

 an array of opposing facts. But to refer once more to 

 the case of birds. Assuming the correctness of evolution, 

 as I do, then we need go back but a very short period in 



