337 
THE SONG- OF FISHES. 
Br JOHN 0. GALTON, M.A., F.L.S. 
[PLATE CXIII.] 
“ Un vrai vagabondage musical qui saisit par sa nouveaute, et est telle- 
ment attrayant qu’on l’entend avec plus de plaisir, ou du moins avec plus 
d’etonnement, que ces excentricites musicales que 1’Allemagne a cherche dans 
ces derniers temps a importer chez nous.” — Dufosse, 1874. 
M DUFOSSE, though in the above sentence unmistakably 
• declaring himself no disciple of the composer of Tann- 
hauser and Lohengrin , and showing himself a far from pro- 
mising proselyte as far as “ the music of the future ” is con- 
cerned, and though thus sadly assimilating his musical taste to 
our British standard — such as it is — is, nevertheless, entitled 
to be heard with respect, at all events so long as fishes are 
under consideration, seeing that he has for a long period had 
several hundred of these cold-blooded musicians under constant 
observation. 
That certain fishes produce at certain seasons sounds — nay, 
more, that many such sounds can be brought under the cate- 
gory of musical notes — is known but to few even in these our 
days, though the fact did not escape the notice of that most 
observant of all natural historians, Aristotle ; * and that which 
he thought and wrote in Greek on this subject has, of course, 
as in other things, been echoed some centuries later by Pliny in 
Latin.f 
More recently recorded observations upon the sounds pro- 
duced by fishes are but few and far between. One of the best 
perhaps of all accounts is that given by Sir J. Emerson 
Tennent, late Governor of Ceylon.f When at Batticaloa 
* “ Wotpovg 8e nvag atpiaai icai rpiypovg o'ug Xkyovai cpoivtiv, olov Xvpa kcu 
X popug’ ovtoi yap acpiaotv tocnr tp ypvX'Xiapov ’ icai u ica7rpog o iv rip ’Axe\oj(p 
eri dt yaAicsvg icai kokkvZ.” u Hist. Anim.” iv. 9, 3. 
t “Nat. Hist.” lib. xi. iElian, too (rLpi Zwwv "Ihorprog, lib. x. cap. ii.), 
quotes Aristotle’s statement, but adds nothing new to it. 
X “Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon,” pp. 380-85 and 401. 
London: 1861. 
VOL. XIII. — NO. LIII. Z 
