46 ME. F. DAY ON THE 



his coat and tucking up his shirt-sleeves, he entered the water 

 and tried to intercept the fish's return to the river, endeavouring 

 to get his hands beneath it and throw it on to the bank. The 

 Pike finding his escape likely to be cut off, assumed the offensive, 

 seizing one of the gentleman's arms with his teeth and severely 

 lacerating it : it had evidently argued that it must by force put the 

 cause of its impediment to rout. Mr. J. Faraday, at the Man- 

 chester Anglers' Association, read a paper, in December 1878, re- 

 cording an instance of apparent intelligence in a Skate which he 

 observed while officiating as Curator of the Aquarium. A morsel 

 of food thrown into the tank fell directly in an angle formed by 

 the glass front and the bottom. The Skate, a large example, made 

 several vain attempts to seize the food, owing to its mouth being 

 on the underside of its head and the food being close to the glass. 

 He lay quite still for a while as though thinking, then suddenly 

 raised himself into a slanting posture, the head inclined upwards 

 and the under surface of the body towards the food, when he 

 waved his broad expanse of fins, thus creating an upward current 

 or wave in the water, which lifted the food from its position and 

 carried it straight to his mouth *. 



Certain fishes likewise are endowed with specific means of 

 showing their being affected by anger or terror, as the Electric 

 Eel (Gymnotus electricans), which possesses electric organs of 

 such power as to be capable of causing death even to large ani- 

 mals. Humboldt and others have recorded how the Indians in 

 South America, when they desire to capture these fish, drive horses 

 and mules into waters which they inhabit, when, as soon as dis- 

 turbed, these eels attack the intruders. They first glide under 

 the horses' bellies and prostrate them by repeated electric shocks, 

 which, however, by degrees become of less and less intensity, 

 as long rest and nourishment are required to repair the galvanic 

 force which they have expended. It has been considered that the 

 possession of this power is for the purpose of protecting the 

 Electric Eel against Alligators ; and it is certainly employed 

 against other fish which it requires as food; but its onslaught 

 on intruding horses must clearly be the effect of anger or terror. 

 The power decreases, and is perhaps eventually lost, in exam- 

 ples which are kept in confinement. Even in British seas, we 

 know, exists a fish endowed with this electric property, viz. 



* Nature, Dec. 19, 1878. 



