ICHTHYOLOGY. 27 



objects ; " but whether this phenomenon arises from an 

 action of will on the part of the fish, or is a kind of 

 involuntary or unconscious sympathy dependent on some 

 " law of colours," is still to be determined. It certainly 

 seems a general, or at least a very prevalent, law of nature 

 that wild animals, birds, beasts, and fish, more or less 

 assimilate in colour with the surroundings of their special 

 existence. 



Can Pish Speak ? (i. e. to one another) : or have they 

 any powers of " vocal utterance " ? 2Eschylus calls fish, 

 at least his chorus in the Persm calls them, the "Voice- 

 less daughters of the unpolluted one ; " but many of the 

 ancients and moderns testify to the utterances of fish. 

 Pliny, Ovid, and others tell us of the Seams and its 

 wonderful powers of intonation. In the days of old 

 Rome the Mursenas were supposed to have a regular 

 language " low, sweet, and fascinating ; " and the Em- 

 peror Augustus pretended to understand their very words. 

 I have read of the various sounds produced by gurnards, 

 of the " booming " of the " bearded drum-fish," of the 

 " noisy maigre," and of the "grunt-fish" of the Gulf of 

 Mexico, which, though with an imperfect voice, " can 

 express discontent and pain," and which, when touched 

 with a knife, ' f fairly shrieks, and " when dying makes 

 moans and sobs disagreeably human." Our English 

 fresh-water fish are apparently dumb, with the exception 

 of the " croaking trout " mentioned a page or two back, 

 and I might, perhaps, add carp, which make a strange 

 "sucking" noise when on hot summer days they put 

 their noses out into the " upper air " from the beds of 

 water-lilies or aquatic weeds, to take in an extra supply 

 of oxygen, or "just for the fun of the thing." But of 



