74S- ICHTHY 
pend a greater or lefs facility in feekingtheir food. Some 
content themfelves with fea-weed ; others feek in the mud 
for the remnants of organifed fubftances, and thefe have 
been fuppofed to feed upon flime; fome are very fond of 
the feeds and other parts of vegetables, either watery or 
earthy; but the greater number prefer infefis and worms 
of various kinds, the fpawn or young fry of their own fe¬ 
males, and in general all thofe animals which they can 
feize and devour in their courfe without too much dan¬ 
ger of refinance. 
The powers of afllmulation in fifhes feem to increafe 
with the quantity of food with which they are fupplied. 
A pike, fparingly fed, can be habituated to fubfift on very 
little nourifhment; if fully fupplied, it acquires the power 
of devouring a hundred roaches in three days. Some ex¬ 
ceptions to the extraordinary voracity of fifties are pro¬ 
duced by naturalifts, which, if fully examined, will per¬ 
haps appear more fpecious than real. Some are faid to 
fubfift: on pure tvater alone; an aflertion, which is fup¬ 
pofed to be proved by numberlefs inftances of their living, 
for feveral months, in ponds conftrufted of hewn ftone, 
where they had been fupplied with no food. It is alleged 
too, that thofe which are carried from a diftance to the 
markets of London and Paris in perforated veffels, muft 
fubfift upon water alone. The element of water, how¬ 
ever, is feldom found pure and unmixed. The very epi¬ 
thets of fait, bitter, and fweet, imply a compofition and 
mixture, perceptible even to the tafte. The particles of 
the earth upon which it runs, neceffarily enter into it, 
and vitiate its purity. Thefe fubltances, together with 
myriads of animalcules with which it teems, may fupply, 
for a while, a fcanty fubfiftence, and fupport the life of 
the animal. In the mean time, it will readily be allowed, 
that fifties, though for ever hungry and prowling, can en¬ 
dure the want of food for a long time. In them, habits 
feem to be formed by the circumftances in which they are 
placed. Want produces abftinence; from abundance they 
learn voracity. A pike, one of the molt gluttonous of 
fifties, will live, and even thrive, in a pond where there is 
none but itfelf; and the gold and filver fifties, which we 
confine in glafs vafes, fubfift, frequently for years, with¬ 
out any vifible fupport but water. Rondeletius mentions 
one that was kept at his houfe, in this manner, for three 
years, which grew to Inch afize, that the vafe could fearce- 
Jy contain it, nor could it be brought out at the fame paf- 
fage by which it was introduced into the veflel. It would 
appear, therefore, that, in certain fituations, fifties are as 
remarkable for abftinence, as, in others, they are diftin- 
guilhed for voracity; and that nature, in compaftion to 
the want which they muft often fufter, has indulged them 
with a power of accommodating their appetite to fcarcity 
of food, as well as to abundance. 
Water, then, is of more importance by far to fifties 
than food; for very few can live long out of that balmy 
element; it undergoes fuch decompofitions in their inte¬ 
rior organs as to become a real nutriment, when other 
food is wanting. Yet the larger and voracious fpecies 
require more copious and folid aliment, which leads them 
to a continued ftate of warfare ; and, according to their 
fize, they are by turns tyrants and victims, converting the 
vaft expanfe of the waters into fields of carnage. 
We have already fpoken of the arms oftenfive and de- 
fenftve of thefe animals. Some few, as the torpedo, elec¬ 
trical eel, &cc. have the extraordinary faculty of wounding 
at a diftance, of ftriking with the rapidity of lightning, of 
putting in motion that eleftric fire, which, excited by art, 
fparkles, ftiines, and beats down, in the laboratory, and 
which, in the hands of nature, ftiines amid the darknefs, 
and hurls thunder through the air. See Gymnotus, 
vol. ix. p. i 38. and the article Raja. 
It has been faid, that feveral fifties, inftead of an elec¬ 
tric power, poflefled the fatal property of containing and 
tranfmitting an aftive poilon : but it does not appear, 
from a minute examination of their teeth or fpines, that 
O L O G Y. 
there is any cavity or bag whence a venomous liquor 
could be tranfmitted by a bite or wound; nor does there 
appear in the other parts of the body any matter of a cor- 
rofive or deleterious nature ; and we are wellaflured, that, 
when any fatal confequences have followed a wound from 
a fifh, they muft be attributed to the nature of the wound 
and the ftate of the patient’s blood. It has been pretend¬ 
ed, with more' appearance of reafon, that fome are dan¬ 
gerous to eat. It may happen, that certain fillies in very 
hot countries may contain poifonous aliment, poifonous 
to thofe who may eat the fifh without proper cleanfing, 
but not hurtful to the fifh itfelf, an animal impregnated 
with oil, and furniftied with digeftive juices of a peculiar 
kind : this aliment may confilt, for example, of the fruit 
of the mancinella, or other poifonous vegetables, or the 
remains of certain fea-worms, whofe juices have been 
long known to be poifonous. Nay, it is probable that 
long feeding upon fuch aliment may fo change the nature 
of a filh, as to make all its juices and mufcles partake of 
the fame poifonous nature, fo as to become deadly food 
to man, though prepared and cleanfed with the. utmolfc 
caution. But it is ealy to prove, that fifties of themfelves 
never naturally contain any poifon. 
But there are ftill other modes of attack and defence. 
Some fifties, not calculated for open war, are contented 
with lying in wait, and pra&ifing ftratagems to attradfc 
infedls and fmall fifh. Several fpecies, whofe heads are 
furniftied with thofe filaments called barbies, conceal 
themfelves in the mud, between ftones or clefts in the 
rocks, or among the fea-weed, letting tlieir barbies only 
be feen, which they put in motion, fo as to appear like 
live worms; thefe attradl certain unwary animals, which 
perhaps they could not otherwil'e catch without a tirefome 
chace. Some, by means of their mouth (as the petromy- 
zons), their tail (as fome mursena), their lower fins clafped 
(as the cyclopterus), or with a particular organ upon the 
head (as the echeneis), fallen themfelves to rocks, float¬ 
ing trees, veflels, or larger filh, urged by the defire of ob¬ 
taining food, or for fafety from danger. Others, as the 
eel, dig holes in the bottom, with great art, not fo much 
to guard themfelves from cold, as to efcape from their 
enemies; they have another mode of efcape, which is by 
crawling upon the land, which their ferpent-lhape enables 
them to do, and where they find abundance of that food 
which is raoft agreeable to them. Laltly, fome have the 
peftoral fins fo broad and long, that they can ufe them as 
wings, and thus efcape their purfuers, for a time at leaft* 
by foaring into the air. 
Thus it is not only in the bofom of the waters, but on 
the earth and in the air, that fifties refort for fome mo¬ 
ments of fafety. But how Ihort is that fafety ! how infe¬ 
rior to the modes of attack are thofe of defence! what de¬ 
valuation takes place without ceafingin feas and in rivers! 
how many embryos that never fee the light! how many 
individuals deftroyed! and how many fpecies muft en¬ 
tirely have difappeared, had not moll of them have been, 
endowed with fuch extraordinary fecundity, that a Angle 
female, being capable of giving life to millions, has the 
means-of preventing the annihilation of her fpecies ! 
But it is not always by a limited courfe that fifties pro¬ 
cure their prey or efcape from their enemies. They often . 
make long journeys. Driven by-fear, or excited by appe¬ 
tite, drawn on by the defire of more plentiful or fubftantial 
food, driven by tempefts, carried by currents, or in fearch 
of more temperate climes, they traverfe vaft feas ; they 
pals from one continent to another, and travel in every 
direftion through that immenfe extent in which nature 
has placed them. But thefe migrations have no more re¬ 
gularity than the changeable caufes which produce them; 
they are not performed in regular order; they belong not 
to the fpecies; they are the a< 5 t of individuals. But this 
is not the cafe with that periodical concourfe towards the 
Ihore which takes place for fpawning and fecundation; 
nor with that regular affent .which takes place annually* 
andri 
