lxxiv " BREEDING. — INSTINCTS AND EMOTION'S. 



it would be to the lake fisheries, also to the upper waters of our rivers, with, 

 of course, the drawback that the numbers would have to be occasionally 

 replenished. 



INSTINCTS AND EMOTIONS.* 



The instincts of brutes have received more attention from biologists than 

 those of fishes. Some naturalists have asserted that the lives of the finny- 

 tribes are destitute of the joys and sorrows generally appertaining to verte- 

 brate animals, attributing to them an almost vegetative existence. But 

 fishermen are well aware that they are as eager to escape from danger or 

 avoid capture as are the inhabitants of the earth or the frequenters of the 

 air, which compels us to question whether their lives are as joyless as have 

 been represented, if anger or affection are really unknown passions to them. 



Fishes have certain means of demonstrating their emotions, as they are 

 capable of erecting their dermal appendages, as scales or fin-rays, under the 

 influence of anger or terror, similarly as feathers or hairs are erected in birds 

 and mammals. But special expressions, as of joy, pain, astonishment, &c, 

 we can hardly expect to find so well-marked in fishes as in some of the 

 higher grades of animals, in which the play of the features often affords an 

 insight into their internal emotions. Eyes without movable eyelids, cheeks 

 encased with bony plates or covered with hard scales are scarcely suitable 

 for smiling, while external ears are wanting. Still we perceive among fishes 

 a distinct expression or change of colour, which is but slightly developed or 

 even absent in many of the higher vertebrates. When one sickens its 

 brilliant tints become less and less, or even entirely fade away, while the 

 same result may follow being vanquished by a foe. ' But .when in good 

 health and. residing in suitable localities, especially during the breeding 

 season, their colours become vivid, and even a temporary accession of anger 

 may cause a similar result. 



When investigating, if fish are or are not destitute of affections, it is 

 necessary to ascertain whether they show such to their companions or to 

 human beings, irrespective of what they may exhibit to their partners or 

 their offspring. Mr- Arderon found that . on separating two ruffs, Acerina 

 ■cernua, the one he kept pined away, declining food until its companion was 

 restored, when both became contented (vol. i, p. 12), and the same observer 

 gave an account (Phil. Trans. Boyal Society, 1727) of how he tamed a dace, 

 Leuciscus vulgaris, which would lie close to the glass watching its master. 

 Marital affection I have alluded to when referring to the breeding of fishes 

 (page lxi). • 



* See "Instincts and Emotions in Fish," by F. Day. Linn. Soc. Journal, xv, p. 31. 



