The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-08-10

center and allow others from the in
side to take their places and taste.
When the fish have reached the linn
1t Of the food, they turn, and all SEM
blance of order is lost or forgotten, and
excitement of the widest description
follows, like men in sinking ship, eve
ry fish for itself, such is the mad rush
to devour. Old fishermen describe it as
like the cliffs falling down, when mil
lions of pilchards thus dash forward
and throw themselves headlong out of
water in the wild feeding orgie. Thus
feeding from the land, they show their
design, for they avoid rushing upon
beaches and shadows Of coasts, which,
in their madness, would be sure to hap
pen if they fed in from the sea, and
thousands would meet their death.
They feed all night, and next day form
again into shoals, and again exercise
their great will power by quietly pass
ing through those tempting delights to
be ready for the evenings exercises"
Mackerel, DR.. Dunn says, show the
greatest variety Of taste in feeding. In
the very early spring they will neglect
every other kind of food for the spores
of the olive seaweed. From May on
through the summer they revel in the
young herring and sprats. IN the au-
tumn and winter they feed on the lar
val forms of crabs and floating minute
crustacean life. These give them their
fine condition for the table. The olive
seaweed spores soften their skin and
give it that well~known velvety feeling
to the touch.
DR.. Edinger is in doubt about the
quality of vision In fishes. On this
point DR.. Dunn is particularly interest
ing. He says the sight of fishes is not
strong enough in adult fishes to dis
cover food or foes or friends or any
thing else at any distance Their eyes
are not telescope like those of the
higher order Of vertebrate, but micro
scopic, and only useful for the imrne-
date wants and pleasures of life. The
eyes of some fishes-founders. grey
mullet, pollock and similar varieties
are microscopic to such degree that to
discover the minute animalculae and
crustacea they were feeding on DR..
Dunn was obliged to use the full power
Of q half-inch glass.
The eocus of FISH vision extends with
age. In mackerel, salmon and other
surfaee-feeding fishes, vision is better
than In others. Some are so keen
sighted" says DR.. Dunn, las to discov-
err the reflected sheen on a new gut, and
to refuse the bait as a consequence or
to show pleasure in taking gaudy fly
when the appetite is delicate. In con-
gers, which have their homes In dark
rock assures, in the shelter of old
wrecks, or in burrowed holes In the
sandy plain of the sea bottom, the Gu
ticle, or skin, Of the body covers the eye
also. This keeps out the mud and sand,
but the fish is practically blind The
matella has splendid sight in youth,
living on the surface of the sea, but 1t
is almost gone when adult life comes
in, although this fish lives near the
shore, and builds It's nest in assures in
the rocks near low water. In old age
it hides from the light, feeds only at
night, and develops a beard, or tenta-
Giles, around its head, which act the
part Of eyes.
Fish are of low nervous sensibility
generally, but have centres of extreme
nervous activity. The jaws, mouth and
throat of most fishes, DR.. Dunn asserts,
are not particularly susceptible to pain,
and such fishes once hooked and freed
will come and take the bait again.
This is not the case, however, with
those of pcehensile lip, or with papillae
or barbels or tentacles around their
heads or snouts Thus the conger eel,
&c.
and its sense of smell for all knowl-
edge of food presence, may take fish
ernan's hook into his stomach, tear
loose and making no ado about 1t
whatever, will return to the bait again;
but should II be hooked in the lips and
wrench and tear loose, the fisherman's
night work will be over. for the pricked
conger will be so mad with pain that 1T
Will drive away all other fish from the
neighborhood."
The lips and curious feeling appen-
dages of that class of fishes are their
nerve centers. On the other hand, as
an evidence os the absence OF all ner-
vous sensibility In portions of the
anatomy of fishes where it would nat
urally be supposed to be present II any
where. DR.. Dunn mentions the instance
Of blue shark that some Cornish fish
erman captured. They ripped open the
belly, removed the liver for its oil and
threw the fish back into the sea. The
fishermen resumed their fishing and the
first fish to come to a hook was that
self-same shark! DR.. Dunn also mem
tons the catching of a rocking which
l., nj
very short time previously, been
hooked by some other fisherman, and
which had become freed from his hook,
but not until its stomach and entrails
had been drawn entirely out and
through the gill coverings, where they
were being towed along by the fish at
the time it rushed upon the second bait
that caught it!
These deductions from his observa-
ton of actions and habits of fishes that
must have been the result of organism,
were put forward by DIR. Dunn long be-
fore DR.. Edinger's deliverance on the
subject of memory In fishes, and he
does not refer specifically to that func-
ton. As to the fact of memory In
fishes, however, the late Seth Green, the
father of American fish culture, was
able to give at least one striking exam
ple of it, an example which, daubtless,
many people to-day have pleasant re-
collection Of, for no one visited the
State Hatchery a Caledonia, N. r., in
those days without witnessing that in
teresting exhibition.
In one of the enclosed pools at the