28 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



course this is not " talking," nor is it really a " vocal ut- 

 terance/' still I am strongly impressed with the idea that 

 fish can talk to one another, like other dumb animals, as 

 the traditional Irishman might say, at least "in their 

 way." I have watched for hours small fry in ponds and 

 rivers, and fish of all sizes in aquaria, and the manner in 

 which they dart up to one another, put noses together for 

 a moment, and dart off again with an air as much as to 

 say " all right," leads me to the conclusion that they can 

 make communications to one another which I am satisfied 

 to call " talking." It has certainly often struck me that 

 fish make themselves understood to one another much 

 more quickly than other dumb animals. Gilbert White, 

 who of course " holds a brief for birds," says that " many 

 of the winged tribes have various sounds and voices 

 adapted to express their various passions, wants, and 

 feelings, such as anger, fear, love, hatred, hunger, and 

 the like ; " and then adds quaintly, " No bird, like the 

 fish kind, is quite mute, though some are rather silent. 

 The language of birds is very ancient, and like other 

 ancient modes of speech, very elliptical ; little is said, but 

 much is meant and understood." As I " hold a brief " 

 for the fish, I maintain that this " quite mute " expression 

 is a libel, and I am glad to see that White's Editor (in 

 1833) comes to the rescue, and instances on behalf of the 

 vocal powers of fish, the " grunting " of the gurnard when 

 taken from a hook, the " shrill ory like a mouse " of a 

 herring just caught in a net, and the statement of a 

 Mr. John Thompson of Hull, who said that some tench 

 "croaked like a frog for a full half-hour" after he had 

 got them in his basket. Of course I do not seriously 

 argue that fish talk to one another. I must confess that 



