OCR Text |
Show 216 MR. F. DAY ON FEAR AND ANGER IN FISHES. [Feb. 19, vanquished; this reacts on his health, and as a result his brilliant hues fade away. The conqueror, on the other hand, exulting in his victory becomes more resplendent; he does not forget his former triumph, and considers it no disgrace to occasionally lord it over his beaten foe. " Fear is shown by fish in many ways. ' When hooked or netted they sometimes empty their stomachs by an instinctive act of fear, or to facilitate escape by lightening their load' (Owen, Comp. Anat. i. p. 419). There is not an angler unacquainted with the natural timidity of fishes, nor a keeper in charge of a salmon-pass, who does not know how easy it is for poachers to deter the salmon from venturing along the path raised expressly for his use. "Amongst the coral-reefs of the Andaman Islands I found the little Heliastes lepidurus abundant. As soon as the water was splashed they appeared to retire for safety to the branching coral, where no large fish could follow them ; so frightened did they become, that on an Andamanese diving from the side of the boat, they at once sought shelter in the coral, in which they remained until it was removed from the sea. In Burma I observed, in 1869, that when weirs are not allowed to stretch across the rivers (which would impede navigation), the open side as far as the bank, is studded with reeds ; these, as the water passes over them, cause vibration, and occasion a curious sound alarming the fishes, which, crossing to the weired side of the river, become captured. " Under the influence of fear or anger the well-known Climbing Perch of India (Anabas scandens) not only erects its spiny-rayed fins and its gill-covers, but also the scales on its body, even down to those along the base of the caudal fin *; this to a less extent, perhaps, appears common to spiny-rayed forms. " Hooker, alluding to Gulls, Terns, Wild Geese and Pelicans in the Ganges valley, observes, ' These birds congregate by the sides of pools and beat the water with violence, so as to scare the fish, which then become an easy prey-a fact which was, I believe, first indicated by Pallas during his residence on the banks of the Caspian Sea' 2. Fishes, under the influence of terror, dash about with their fins expanded, and often run into places which must destroy them. Thus droves and droves of Sardines in the East, impelled by the terror of pursuing Sharks, Bonitoes, Seir, and other voracious fishes, frequently throw themselves on the shores in enormous quantities. Friar Odoric, who visited Ceylon about 1320, says, 'There are fishes in those seas that come swimming towards the said country in such abundance, that for a great distance into the sea nothing car-be seen but the backs of fishes, which, casting themselves on the shore, do suffer men for the space of three daies to come, and to take as many of them as they please, and then they return again into the sea' •. " Fishes frequently show distinct signs of affection. Yarrell ('British Fishes') mentions how a person who had kept two 1 ' Fishes of Malabar ' (1865), p. 133. 2 Himalayan Journals, vol. i. p. 80. 3 Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 37. |