50 MR. F. DAT 0!N T THE 



with alternate stripes of black and yellow across tie back"*. 

 Pallegroix observes that in Siam tbe Dog's-tongue is a fish shaped 

 like a Sole : it attaches itself to the bottom of boats and makes a 

 sonorous noise, which is more musical when several are stuck to 

 the same boat and act in concert f. "While on board the brig 

 'Ariel,' observes Adams, in the ' Journal of the Samarang,' " then 

 lying off the mouth of the river of Borneo, I had the good fortune 

 to hear that solemn aquatic concert of the far-famed Organ-fish or 

 Drum-fish, a species of Pogonias. These singular fishes produce 

 a loud monotonous singing sound, which rises and falls, and 

 sometimes dies away, or assumes a very low drumming character, 

 and the noise appeared to proceed mysteriously from the bottom 

 of the vessel. This strange submarine chorus of fishes continued 

 to amuse us for about a quarter of an hour, when the music, if so 

 it may be called, suddenly ceased, probably on the dispersion of 

 the band of performers." Sir Emerson Tennant observed that a 

 Siluroid fish (Clarias) found in the lake at Colombo is said by 

 the fishermen to make a grunt under water when disturbed. 

 iElian tells us that the Shad (Clupea) appears to take pleasure in 

 the sounds of musical instruments ; while should it thunder 

 during the period they are ascending rivers, they rapidly return 

 to the sea. 



Companionship or friendship (as apart from affection) is shown 

 in fishes, while we sometimes perceive such inspired by motives 

 of gain. Mr. H. Shaw, of Shrewsbury, informs me that a gentle- 

 man near that town made the acquaintance of a Trout, over a 

 pound weight, then residing in a brook at Borton Cliff, and wa s 

 accustomed to constantly supply it with caterpillars which he 

 obtained from the gooseberry- and other bushes and carried in a 

 cabbage-leaf to the stream. He flicked them off into the water 

 •with a small stick, as one day he found that having taken a cater- 

 pillar up in his fingers and thrown it to the fish, it apparently 

 seized it, but seemed at once to eject it, and with a whisk of his 

 tail it immediately disappeared. The same result occurred after 

 every repetition of the experiment, although it latterly returned 

 more quickly than at first. The amount of caterpillars it con- 

 sumed was enormous. Friendship here was doubtless due to 

 this supply of food, while taste or smell must have induced fear, 



* Life in the Forests of the Far East,' vol. ii. p. 270. 

 t Pallegroix, I. c. p. 03. 



