438 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



Having given an outline of the conclusions reached 

 on the supposed relationship of voice and color among 

 certain of our common fresh-water fishes, let us consider 

 in detail the characteristic habits of two of the best known 

 and most widely differing species of the lists. As repre- 

 senting the voiceless but gayly-colored fishes, let us take 

 the common sunfish, and, on the other hand, the equally 

 familiar cat-fish as an instance of a fish that has the power 

 of uttering a sound that has the rudiments of a voice. 



With the bursting of the leaf -buds and disappearance 

 of the ice from the shady nooks of our quiet inland 

 ponds, the gayly-tinted sunfish, which all winter long has 

 been lazily loafing in the deeper waters, polishes up his 

 old coat until it looks as well as new, and, coming boldly 

 to the sunny shallows, he darts restlessly about, an object 

 of admiration to himself, and, what is of more importance, 

 to others as well, and before the flowers of May have 

 faded he has succeeded in getting a mate. But the 

 courtship of this gaudy fish has been no easy matter. 

 Hundreds of his kind, as bright as he, have, like him, 

 striven by the hour to clear the field of every rival ; and 

 the clear waters are often turbid with sand and grass torn 

 from the bed of the stream, as the older males chase each 

 other jfrom point to point, endeavoring by a successful 

 snap to mutilate each other's fins. No courtship battles 

 among birds are more earnestly fought, and as the bird 

 w r ith bedraggled feathers is wise enough to withdraw 

 from the contest and quietly seek a mate when his soiled 

 plumage is in part restored, so the sunfish with torn 

 fins retires from the contested nesting-ground. But not 

 a sound has been made by these excited fishes except that 

 of the rippling water when cut by their spiny fins as they 

 chanced to reach above the surface. , Never, when for a 

 moment quiet, have I chanced to see the delicate chain 



