1877.] Traces of a Voice in Fishes. 151 
colored species. The brilliant tints being of little or no use by 
night necessitates the diurnal habits of those fishes possessing 
them, while the nocturnal species, with a voice as a compensation 
for color, are enabled to carry on a courtship in part by its aid 
which would be of little or no use during the day. 
Having given an outline of the conclusions reached, as to the 
supposed relationship of voice and color among certain fishes, 
let us consider in detail the characteristic habits of two of the 
best-known and most widely differing species of the list given. 
As representing the voiceless but highly tinted fishes, let us take 
the common sunfish (Pomotis vulgaris), and on the other hand 
the equally familiar cat-fish (Amiurus lynx) as an instance of a 
fish that has the power of uttering a sound, — that has the rudi- 
ments of a voice. 
With the bursting of the leaf-buds and disappearance of the 
ice from the shady nooks of our quiet inland ponds, the gayly 
tinted sunfish that all winter long has been lazily loafing in 
the deeper waters of his old-time haunts dons not another 
scaly coat, indeed, but so renews and polishes the old that he 
might well pass for another of his kind; and, coming boldly to 
the sunny shallows, darts restlessly about, admiring himself, I 
doubt not, but to his greater satisfaction being admired by 
others, and before the flowers of May have faded has gotten 
himself a mate. But the courtship of this gaudy fish has been 
no easy matter. Hundreds of his kind, as bright as he, have, 
like him, striven by the hour to clear the field of every rival ; 
and the clear waters are often turbid with sand and grass torn 
from the bed of the stream, as the older males chase each other 
from point. to point, endeavoring by a successful snap to rob 
each other of a fin. No courtship battles among birds are more 
earnestly fought; and as the bird with bedraggled feathers is 
wise enough to withdraw from the contest and quietly seek a 
mate when his soiled plumage is in part restored, so the sunfish 
with mangled fins retires from the nesting grounds. But nota 
sound has been made by these excited fishes, except that of the 
rippling water when cut by their spiny fins as they chanced to 
teach above the surface. N ever, when for a moment quiet, have — 
we chanced to see the delicate chain of silvery bubbles that 
escape from the mouth of the bass (mud sunfish) when, shall 
We say, calling to its mate? At night, I believe, the sunfish 
rests from his labors. I have not been able to detect any con- 
tinuance of his spring-time vivacity after sunset, and am led to 
