Can 
Fish Hearr 
Here Are Some Interesting Experiments for Observers of 
one’s patience sometimes at such 
an oft-repeated, thoughtless ques- 
tion as “Do you think fish can hear?” 
And how frequently that question 
comes from anglers! If you want to 
know anything of the fine sensibilities 
of the quarry he pursues do not ask 
the sportsman. Can fish hear? The 
interrogation should be considered 
wasted. Of course, they can. Why 
not? It is clearly necessary that they 
should, and when does Nature turn out 
an unfinished work? But what is hear- 
ing? Applied broadly and unscientifi- 
cally to all living things, it may be de- 
fined simply as the capacity for recog- 
nizing sounds. It does not follow that 
all creatures should possess a tym- 
panum, but it does follow that a means 
must exist of receiving and transmit- 
ting to the intelligence a more or less 
complete gamut of vibrations. 
Sounds have their meanings, at least 
their indications. Man has evolved the 
power of understanding an infinite va- 
riety of sounds. That power has grown 
with and from necessity, and extended 
culture. Some creatures’ necessities in 
that direction are very limited indeed, 
as with the earth-worm or mole, but 
the limitation is only in the variety of 
the sounds that they recognize, not in 
the sensitiveness of recognition. Much 
a is a little difficult to preserve 
‘of what they hear man could not hear. 
They are specialiized in proportion to 
their requirements, some so highly as 
almost to be beyond belief. But all 
creatures are sensitive to sound-waves 
to some degree or other and in some 
way or other. The subject is vast and 
far-reaching, but we must not wander 
beyond che piscine faculty. 
HAT fish hear is the question in 
point. Or, put another way, to 
what degree are they adapted to the 
reception of sound vibration, recognized 
or unrecognized? And do they hear 
not only what goes on in their own ele- 
ment, but in ours also? I have a trout 
stream preserve. Over various haunts 
where I can watch the fishes’ ways I 
slant thatched hurdles with observation 
holes in them and support them with 
stakes. Many are the marvelous things 
I discover in fish life and habits by 
careful and regular watching, but 
nothing ha« been easier te prove—next 
to their astounding power of vision— 
Page 145 
Game Fish Habits 
Barve ak By BR Rey: irc a gs 
than the degree of their hearing ca- 
pacity and their degree of alarm in 
proportion to various sounds. I pick 
out my trout—in fact, there are three 
or four, one behind the other—but the 
one I watch is the foremost; the smaller 
ones take their cue from him. He is 
feeding steadily in two feet of water. 
My friend fires a shotgun at 200 yards. 
No notice. Again at 100 yards. My 
trout instantly quivers and sinks a 
little. He has stopped steering from 
side to side to seize the tit-bits coming 
down. I interpret his behavior to mean 
that his eyes are on the lookout for 
bank enemies instead of various little 
niceties. His body is poised so steadily 
that I am sure he has not thought of 




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IN THE MATTER OF HEARING, THE LONG- 
EARED SUNFISH IS NO MORE FORTU- 
NATE THAN HIS ASSOCIATES OF OTHER 
SPECIES. HIS AURICULAR APPENDAGES 
MIGHT WELL SERVE AS SUPPORTS FOR 
THE BOWS OF SHELL-RIMMED SPEC- 
TACLES OR AS A DEPOSITING PLACE FOR 
A PENCIL—YET HE IS SENSITIVE TO 
SOUND BOTH IN THE WATER AND IN 
THE AIR ABOVE IT 
feeding. He is watching and listening, 
like a crouched Indian with enemies 
about when he hears a noise in the 
bushes. In two or three minutes he is 
at ease again and feeding away lusti- 
ly. Now I get my comrade to fire at 
twenty yards. The trout darts here 
and there excitedly, then back to his 
old position, and keeps as still as a 
rock, save for that slight wave of his 
tail as a stream register. He is thor- 
oughly alarmed now, and keeps a long 
lookout. To test the extent of his sus- 
picion, I throw in a few worms a yard 
or two above him. As they pass him 
you would think he loathed worms, or 
at least that they were creatures hav- 
ing no part in his life interests. Some- 
thing has disturbed him profoundly. 
He behaves like a man who hears the 
movement of a door handle at two in 
the morning and listens intently for 
the next sound. 
T last he resumes his activities and 
drives away an intruder of smaller 
size, who has ventured too near his 
feeding ground. Then his fins are busy 
again, and his eyes are upon his work. 
At once I signal for another shot at 
the same distance. This settles him, 
and he flashes to his haunt under the 
great\root at my feet. He has gone 
to cover as a precaution, for the deto- 
nation hit him rather hard and a sec- 
ond time. He must ponder, wait, and 
be wary. He wears out my patience. 
N other occasions I tested the same 
fish and others with various sounds, 
such as loud talking, shouts, shrill 
whistles, etc., nearer and nearer. De- 
tails would be tedious and too lengthy, 
but every sound was shown to be heard 
—or should I say felt?—both by trout 
and other fish. It was only a question 
of how near that sound must be. For 
instance, a policeman’s whistle, 
strange to say, had to be quite near to 
cause alarm, yet the breaking of a 
handful of twigs at the same distance 
would startle. This was repeated 
again and again. The explanation is 
a problem in acoustics. 
As to bank vibrations, let none be 
deceived. The man who treads care- 
lessly up to the edge of the water, 
especially in dry weather—even if a 
brick wall hides his form—may be sure 
that he has announced his coming, and 
though the fish are not exactly fright- 
ened, they are immediately attentive, 
on the qui vive, suspicious.’ At such 
times all conceivable lures come in for 
most critical examination. Suspicion 
checks adventure. A blow on the turf 
with the flat of a spade will communi- 
cate itself to every fish within fifty 
yards. We have little idea of their 
superior senses, and our simple ignor- 
ance allows us, many of us, to enjoy a 
veritable fool’s paradise when fishing, 
for, whether it is our footfalls or the 
tapping of our pipe against our boot 
heels, or our boot heels against the 
side of our boot, we are just telling 
the fish to beware of: us, apart from 
what we show them, which, however, is 
not our subject. 
(Continued on page 173) 
