148 Traces of a Voice in Fishes. [ March, 
cient to push the ball up the sides of the declivity by codpera- 
tion of labor. These creatures must, therefore, unquestionably 
possess some means of communicating with each other concern- 
ing this combination. It requires no long observation of our 
song birds to distinguish the different tones by which they warn 
their young of danger, or call them to feed, or by which they 
attract each other to pair. These animals, therefore, have at 
their control a certain number of signals which are quite ade- 
quate to procure for them some few of the wants of their life, 
and these signals, as far as we can at present guess, have been 
acquired and inherited in the same manner as were their in- 
stincts.” (Peschel. 
Although we are all familiar with the lazy drum-fish of our 
sea-coast, — and some may have heard those grunting sounds that 
have given this species its common name, — the little fishes of our 
inland brooks and more pretentious denizens of our rivers are 
looked upon as voiceless creatures; that if indeed they have 
ideas, they must express them entirely by movements, not of one 
portion, but by their whole bodies. But, in fact, the conditions 
that obtain among insects and birds, as detailed in our quotation 
from Dr. Peschel,! are, in a measure, applicable to our fishes; 
at least, in the several years of my studies of the habits of our 
more common species, I have concluded that certain sounds made 
by these fishes are really vocal efforts, and that their utterance 
is for the purpose of expressing an idea to others of their kind; 
and furthermore, that these sounds are closely connected with 
their breeding habits, although I have heard these same sounds 
at other seasons. : 
Probably no one has failed to notice the brilliant colors of the 
restless red-fin, as it darts to and fro through the clear waters of 
a crystal brook, or the crimson fins of the silvery roach, that ere 
summer has passed, pale to dull yellow and lose all their glow; 
but while with all our fishes there is at one time of the year a 
deepening of every tint, this is in no wise comparable to the 
gorgeous hues nature has vouchsafed to a certain few. My 
studies of the habits of these common fishes have suggested that 
the bright colors of spring, which are analogous to the breeding 
plumage of male birds, might possibly bear the same relationship z 
to vocal sounds that the songs and plumage of birds bear to each a 
other. With some exceptions, our finest songsters are dull-col- i 
ored birds. Have our plainer-tinted fishes a compensation fof 3. 
this attraction of color in the ability to utter sounds ? ‘ 
1 The Races of Man, page 101. By Oscar Peschel. D. Appleton & Co. 1876. 
