FISH — GENEKAL INTELLIGENCE. 
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threshers springing several yards into the air descended with 
great violence upon the object of their rancour, and inflicted 
upon him the most severe slaps with their long tails, the sounds 
of which resembled the reports of muskets fired at a distance. 
The sword-fish in their turn attacked the distressed whale, stab- 
bing from below : and thus beset on all sides and wounded, 
when the poor creature appeared, the water around him was 
dyed with blood. In this manner they continued tormenting 
and wounding him for many hours, until we lost sight of him ; 
and I have no doubt they in the end completed his destruction. 
The master of a fishing-boa, t has recently observed that the 
thresher-shark serves out the whales, the sea sometimes being 
all blood. One whale, attacked by these fish, once took refuge 
under his vessel, where it lay an hour and a half without moving 
a fin. He also remarked having seen the threshers jump out of 
the water as high as the mast-head and down upon the whale, 
while the sword fish was wounding him from beneath, the two 
sorts of fish evidently acting in concert. 
[Dr. Gunther, however, denies that the thresher ever 
attacks whales ; and Prof. Moseley writes me that he con- 
siders the alleged cases 4 very unlikely, 5 as the hide of the 
whale is so tough, and the blubber so thick, that the 
animal would not 4 feel or care about the thresher, which, 
by falling on the whale from a height of say 20 feet, 
might nearly commit suicide without the whale knowing 
anything about it. The supposed thresher is usually a 
whale splashing, or whales copulating. 5 Moreover, as 
regards the pilot-fish, Prof. Moseley writes me that from 
actual observation he can fully corroborate the opinion 
which I have expressed. 4 The pilot-fish, 5 he says, 4 cannot 
possibly hold on the shark, as it has no means of attach- 
ment 5 ; 4 it is the Remora (which habitually clings to the 
bodies of sharks) that has been mistaken for the pilot- 
fish. The latter is a most unfortunate fish to run as ex- 
hibiting animal intelligence. It constantly mistakes a 
ship for a big shark, swimming for weeks near the water- 
surface, just a foot in front of the cutwater. Now, if it 
swam just behind the stern it would get plenty of food, 
whereas in front of the bow it gets nothing whatever. 
N evertheless, it stays on at what in a shark is of course 
the right place, ready to be at the beast’s mouth directly 
food is found. 5 — 1886.] 
