216 THE SENSES OF ANIMALS 



pounder, little thinking how soon I should be convicted 

 of exaggeration. Next day there was a small, dirty flood, 

 and we did not fish. On the third day we began fishing 

 in the same relative positions as on the first, and the first 

 fish landed by the Duke had my fly sticking in its breast. 

 The inexorable steelyard brought my twenty pounder 

 down to seventeen pounds ; but I mounted the fly again 

 and killed a couple of salmon with it that afternoon. 



Far more conclusive than this incident is the following 

 which a friend sends me 



' Last week, while fishing the Dee, I killed a fish l which had 

 a phantom minnow in the centre of its mouth. One set of 

 hooks a triangle was fixed in the back of the tongue ; the 

 others outside, near the eye. The minnow was just far enough 

 in to enable the fish to shut its mouth, the gut having broken 

 at the swivel. Notwithstanding this mouthful, the fish took 

 my minnow, a natural one. It turned out that the phantom 



was one which Colonel had lost in a fish four days 



previously in the same pool, about two hundred yards lower 

 down. The fish weighed 7 lb.' 



Note that whereas there is no authentic record of food, 

 or traces of food, being found in spring salmon taken 

 in fresh water, hunger cannot have impelled this fish to 

 take the second minnow. The only conclusion to be 

 drawn is that its predacious or pugnacious habit was 

 too strong to be overcome by hooks fastened into its 

 tongue and face. 



As for the other senses of animals, it is easy to recog- 

 nise the superior powers of vision possessed by many 

 predacious species. The sense of taste is more difficult 

 to test ; but we may assume, I think, that in herbivorous 



1 It is hardly necessary to explain that, in Scottish fishing parlance, 

 the only { fish ' is a salmon. 



