. THE SONG OF FISHES. 
347 
of the physicist and scientific musician, for 44 la vibration muscu- 
laire,” as this writer well observes, 64 attend encore son historien ; 
le savant qui, au moyen de recherches experimentales assez mul- 
tipliees, pour faire une etude bien approfondie, bien complete de 
ce fait naturel, l’elevera au rang des phenomenes les plus 
interessants de la biologie.” 
It appears that out of more than 3,000 species of fishes no 
more than 52 are at present known to produce sound. This 
contrasts most singularly with that which happens among the 
other four vertebrate classes, containing at least 1 2,000 species ; 
for here* every individual possesses a larynx — in other words, an 
organ of voice — and out of these those that are incapable of 
exercising the functions of this organ are in a very small 
minority. 
Not only is there every reason to believe that the majority 
of sounds produced by fishes are not casual utterances, but are 
truly voluntary ; but there is among such as give vent to them 
a most remarkable development of the organs of hearing in all 
essential particulars — e.g. in the semicircular canals, otoliths, 
and nerves* — correlative with the degree of perfection of the 
instrument. Further than this, as the sounds generally excel 
in frequency and intensity at the breeding season, it will not be 
unreasonable to regard them — granting, as we do, that the chirp 
of the cricket and the croak of the frog is each in its way 
an alluring serenade — as nuptial hymns, or, to use language 
ascribed to Plutarch, as 44 deafening epithalamia.” f More than 
this ; seeing that the carp, and others of the same family, have 
given unmistakeable proofs of their aptitude to receive some 
rudiments of education, and in particular to perceive certain 
sounds, it can yet be possible that the moral admonitions of a 
St. Anthony of Padua — by many still regarded as a work of 
supererogation — may, no less than the amorous twang of the 
vesical zither, after all not have fallen upon totally deaf ears. 
* See Retzius’ “ Anotomisehe TJntersuchungen. IsteLief. 1 ste Abth: Das 
Gehorlabyrinth der Knochenfische ” (Stockholm, 1872) ; and the beautiful 
preparations, made, we believe, by Mr. Charles Stewart, the Curator, in the 
Museum of St. Thomas’ Hospital, London. 
f M. Dufosse suggests that the song of the fabled Sirens had its origin in 
the utterances of shoals of maigres. It is probable that the latus — that 
“ marvellous morsel,” as Athenseus termed it, caught in the “ fretum 
Siculum ” to garnish the tables of Roman epicures, was, as Rondelet and 
Cuvier suggested, none other than the maigre. 
