XVI INTRODUCTION. 



The Chinese, who breed large quantities of the well-known 

 Goldfish, call them with a whistle to receive their food. Sir 

 Joseph Banks used to collect his fish by sounding a bell ; 

 and Carew, the historian of Cornwall, brought his Grey 

 i Mullet together to be fed by making a noise with two sticks. 

 From the rigid nature of the scaly covering in the gene- 

 rality of fishes, it is probable they possess but little external 

 sense of touch ; but they are not wholly unprovided with 

 organs which in the selection of their food are of essential 

 service. The lips in many species are soft and pulpy ; the 

 mouths of others are provided with barbules or cirri, largely 

 supplied with nerves, which are doubtless to them delicate 

 organs of touch, by which they obtain cognizance of the qua- 

 lities of those substances with which they come in contact. 

 The Gurnards may be said to be provided with elongated, 

 flexible, and delicate fingers, to compensate for their bony lips. 

 It is a rule, almost without an exception that I am aware of, 

 that those fishes provided with barbules or cirri about the 

 mouth obtain their food near the ground ; and these feelers, 

 as they are popularly called, appear also to be a valuable 

 compensation to those species which, restricted by instinctive 

 habits to feeding near the bottom of water that is often both 

 turbid and deep, must experience more or less imperfect 

 vision there from the deficiency of light. 



The olfactory nerves in fishes are of very large size, and 

 the extent of surface over which the filaments are disposed is 

 very considerable. The nostrils are generally double on each 

 side, but both openings lead to one common canal. Their 

 sense of smell may be presumed to be acute from the selec- 

 tion they are known to make in their search after food ; and 

 the advantage said to be gained by the use of various scented 

 oils with which some anglers impregnate their baits. A Pike 

 in clear water has been seen to approach and afterwards turn 



