CHAPTEE VIII, 



F I S II E S. 



T is almost imnecessary to say that there are no 

 more interesting and attractive inhabitants of an 

 aquarium than fish. Fish are both intelligent and, 

 to a certain degree, affectionate. No one ought for a 

 moment to doubt their possession of intelligence when he 

 calls to mind the time, thought, patience, and skill, which 

 must often be expended before the devices of man can over- 

 come the craftiness of some fish ; when he comes to remember 

 how apt they are to profit by experience, and how ready 

 they are to take advantage of the least clumsiness or care- 

 lessness on his own part when, having hooked them, he is 

 attempting to land them; and when he reads (and believes) 

 that certain fish have been known, to come to their feeding- 

 places in the lake in which they live upon the sounding of 

 a gong, and that others (sticklebacks in an aquarium) have 

 been trained to ring a bell when they were wanting food. 

 Nor is it unreasonable to suppose that fish possess affection 

 when sharks hunt in twos ; when pike pair, and if one of 

 them should be captured, the other haunts the spot waiting 

 for the return of his mate; when sticklebacks carefully build 

 their nests and fight in the defence of their young; and 

 when bullheads constantly watch and guard their little ones 

 until the latter are able to take care of themselves. 

 Most fish in captivity will grow quite tame, learn to know 



