OF FISHES IN GENERAL, I^ 



,/fiUan mentions a method of taking filhes in the river 

 Ijler, founded upon this obfervation. .In the rigour of 

 winter, the fifhermen broke fmall holes through the ice. 

 The fufFocating animals inftantly crouded to the aperture, 

 in order to procure a fupply of air ; and fo eager were 

 they to obtain it, that rather than abandon the at- 

 tempt, they lufFered themfelves to be caught with the 

 hand. 



Next to the neceffity of breathing air, that of devour- 

 ing food feems to be the moil conllant and urgent m the 

 nature of fifties. Among them this appetite, both in 

 Itrength and avidity, feems to furpafs thofe limits which 

 Nature has prefcribed to herfelf in the other orders of the 

 animal kingdom. Every aquatic animal that has life^ 

 falls a vi6lim to the indifcriminate voracity of one or 

 other of the fifties. The fmaller tribes devour infects, 

 worms, or the fpawn of the reft of the tenants of the 

 waters ; while they, in their turn, are purfued by mil- 

 lions larger and more rapacious than themfelvesi A few 

 of them feed upon mud, the aquatic plants or grains of 

 corn ; but by far the greater numbers fubfift upon ani- 

 mal food alone ; and of this they are fo veracious, that 

 they fpare not even thofe of their own kind *. Chart 

 kept in a pond, if fcantily fupplied, frequently devour 

 their own young. Others that are larger, go in queft of 

 a larger prey ; it matters not of what kind, whether of 

 another fpecieSj or of their own. Thofe witli the mofl; capa- 

 cious mouths, purfue almott every thing that has life, 

 and often meet each other in fierce oppofition, when the 

 fi(h which has the wideft throat comes off with victory, 

 and devours its antagonifl:f* 



Thus 



* Willoughby, 111), i. «ap. x. f Goldfeiitli, Nat. Hift. vol, vi. 



