Smell, Taste and Touch. 109 



Horses, cattle or sheep will continue to crop the grass of 

 a pasture, apparently oblivious to all sounds, but will look 

 up at the approach of a man or a dog. Even wild animals 

 remain motionless at the report of a gun, or other noises, 

 provided the author of the sounds is not seen. And yet, 

 if a fish does not skurry away at similar sounds, it is taken 

 as conclusive evidence that it does not hear them. 



It would truly seem, on reflection, that beasts and birds 

 would be more likely to show symptoms of alarm at sounds 

 produced in the medium in which they live, move and have 

 their being, than fishes which inhabit another and denser 

 medium, and consequently feel safe and secure from causes 

 operating in the air. 



Senses of Smell, Taste and Touch. 



The olfactory organs of fishes, while being well developed, 

 have no relation whatever with the function of respiration, 

 as in air-breathing animals. Giinther says : " It is certain 

 that fishes possess the faculty of perceiving odors, and that 

 various scents attract or repel them." This fact has been 

 patent to observant anglers since long before the time of 

 honest Izaak Walton. 



It is evident that game-fishes, like the black bass, which 

 resort to mid-water and near the surface, depend almost 

 entirely on the sense of sight in pursuit of their food, 

 while bottom-feeding fishes rely on the senses of smell, taste 

 or touch. The latter group of fishes have special nervous 

 filaments ending in what are known to neurologists as " ter- 

 minal buds," located in the mouth and on the skin of the 

 body ; also in the barbels, or " feelers," as in the catfishes, 

 and in the detached fin rays of other fishes. These ter- 

 minal buds seem to have the property or function of taste. 



