104 Gossip about Fish. 



of his five senses, that of touch, in his tail, and Dr. Marshall 

 Hall discovered a sort of supplementary heart in that curious 

 situation, and he noticed that " the vessels which issue from the 

 caudal heart appears to have a particular distribution to the 

 spinal marrow/'' The vertebrse of the tail allow of great flexi- 

 bility. Thus, they not only use their tails to collect informa- 

 tion by their superior sense of feeling, but also as bands to 

 grasp any object round which they can be twined. The conger 

 eel uses his tail in the same way. " When taken on board a 

 boat, and left undisturbed, the sensitive powers of its tail are 

 employed in searching out the nature and limits of its prison, and 

 then this organ is stretched out to lay hold of the gun whale, by 

 fixing its hold fast on which a reversed muscular action is put 

 in force, and the whole body is turned overboard." A small 

 blow at the root of the tail disables the creature. 



Among the curiosities of the fish world which attract the 

 constant attention of visitors to the aquarium-room in the 

 Zoological Gardens are the pipe-fish, remarkable for their slen- 

 der, worm-like bodies, elongated snouts, and the exquisite mo- 

 tions of their dorsal fins. These creatures are no less remark- 

 able for their domestic habits, as the males perform the functions 

 of nurses — dry we cannot say, considering the watery situation 

 in which the duty is discharged. The greater pipe-fish and 

 the red-nosed pipe-fish are, like kangaroos, marsupial animals 

 so far as the males are concerned. Mrs. Pipe-fish hands her 

 eggs over to the male, who puts them in his pocket, and hatches 

 them in due time. The slit, opening into the pouch, is closed 

 by adhesion of its lips, and opens again when the time has 

 arrived for the infants to get out and see a little more of the 

 world. The males of the ocean pipe-fish (and some others) 

 having no pockets, carry the eggs about cemented to the 

 abdomen. Concerning the snake pipe-fishes, Mr. Couch says, 

 " When on our coast their actions are amusing, as with their 

 slender and prehensile tails they lay hold of some loose and 

 floating object, with the aid of which, and the anterior portion 

 of the body free, they steer their wandering course by the wavy 

 action of the dorsal fin." 



Little is known concerning the sleep of fishes. Mr. Couch 

 supposes that some of them go to sleep, if we so phrase it, a 

 piece at a time — that is, that certain portions of the brain rest 

 while others remain at work. He thinks the pike may be 

 asleep when he lies so quiet and stupid as to be caught by 

 having a wire noose laid over his nose ; and that great monster,, 

 the sun-fish, may be " enjoying a snooze " when it is found 

 lying on the surface of the water, and allows itself to be seized. 

 The shape of this fish is very queer. It is a sort of blunt oval, 

 very obtuse at the tail end, at which it is furnished with two 



