Fishes

“ Fishes are again provident, zealous animals, that, drawn together by mysterious bands, make the longest voyages, wherein they ascend and descend rivers, knowing how to find their prey over miles in extent. ”

“ The fishes watching the race became very excited, and, in their eagerness to urge them on, kept getting in the children’s way, swimming about in front of them, and getting mixed up with their arms and legs in a most confusing manner. ”

“ In the fresh-waters, worms, leeches, and the larvæ of insects supply the appetite of many. But in addition to all these sources of supply. Fishes everywhere feed upon Fishes. The smaller are seized and devoured by those which are able to master them, and these again become the prey of their superiors; until every Fish sees in his fellow either a victim to be pursued and devoured, or an enemy to be avoided. ”

“ So, as the water is a region very different from the fields or the woods, a fish in form and structure must be quite unlike all the beasts and birds that walk or creep or fly above ground, breathing air and being fitted to live in it. There are a great many kinds of animals called fishes, but in this all of them agree: all have some sort of a back-bone, all of them breathe their life long by means of gills, and none have fingers or toes with which to creep about on land. ”

“ Every fact which occurs in the bed, on the banks, or in the air over it; the fishes, and their spawning and nests, their manners, their food; the shad-flies which fill the air on a certain evening once a year, and which are snapped at by the fishes so ravenously that many of these die of repletion; the conical heaps of small stones on the river-shallows, one of which heaps will sometimes overfill a cart,—these heaps the huge nests of small fishes; the birds which frequent the stream, heron, duck, sheldrake, loon, osprey; the snake, musk-rat, otter, woodchuck, and fox, on the banks ”

“ These kind of fishes, in a cleare Sunshine evening, delight themselves and us, by trying which of them can leap highest above water, so that ’tis a pretty pastime, to see fishes so large, and gloriously colour’d, shew themselves so far above their naturall Element, whose shapes and colours gave such variety. ”

“ They are inactive fishes, generally lying hidden at the bottom between stones, watching for their prey. The delicate filament attached to the bottom of their mouth, and playing in front of it in the current of water which passes through the mouth, serves to lure small animals within reach of the fish. ”

“ IN the sea, once upon a time, O my Best Beloved, there was a Whale, and he ate fishes. He ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel. All the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate with his mouth—so! Till at last there was only one small fish left in all the sea, and he was a small ‘Stute Fish, and he swam a little behind the Whale’s right ear, so as to be out of harm’s way. ”

“ Few of our smaller fresh-water fishes excel, either in beauty or in delicacy and flavor, the species which I have chosen as the subject of this article, and few afford more pleasure to young fishers. Although it occurs in all our streams, whether rapid or gentle, small or large, in the mill-dam overshadowed by tall forest trees, or in the open lake margined with reeds, you must never expect to find it in impure waters. ”

“ And as the females amongst Beasts and Birds of prey for form and beautie surpass the males, so do they especially amongst fishes; and those I intend to treat of, I shall divide into salt-water fish, and fresh-water fish. ”

“ There are fishes in those seas which come swimming towards the said country in such abundance, that for a great distance into the sea nothing can be seen but the backs of fishes, which, casting themselves on the shore, do suffer men for the space of three days to come, and to take as many of them as they please, and then they return again into the sea. ”

“ These valuable fishes follow the same instinct which they exhibit in other parts of the world, in their annual pilgrimage of reproduction, that is, after entering a river’s mouth, to advance as far as possible towards its source. ”

“ The Divers live chiefly at sea, except during the breeding season, and obtain their living by following the shoals of fishes which approach the shallows to spawn, especially the herrings, sprats, &c. These they catch with, great ease and certainty by diving, pursuing their prey with swiftness beneath the surface. ”

“ Fish move from place to place along many miles of sea-coast or river, as they seek their especial food, or a certain warmth.
Sometimes a particular fish, or pair of fishes, will live for years in some certain place. They may find a nice spot under a bank, where they feel safe, and where plenty of food drifts near them. ”

“ The size and abundance of Flat-fishes, and the flavour of the flesh of the majority of the species, render this family one of the most useful to man; and especially on the coasts of the northern temperate zone, their capture is one of the most important sources of profit to the fishermen. ”

“ Such is a very brief summary of the organization of fishes, which have been briefly described as vertebrate, cold-blooded animals, breathing by means of gills; living in water, moving through the water by means of their fins, and reproducing their kind by means of eggs, or spawn. ”

“ And here, fantastic fishes duskly float,
Using the calm for waters, while their fins
Throb out quick rhythms along the shallow air. ”

“ Each kind of fishes has its own ways of life, fitted to the conditions of environment. Some species lie on the bottom, flat, as a flounder, or prone on their lower fins, as a darter or a stone-roller. Some swim freely in the depths, others at the surface of the depths. ”

“ Where fishes of a kind specially used for food gather in great numbers at certain seasons of the year, fishing is carried on extensively and with an elaborate equipment. Such fisheries, some of which have been long known, are scattered all over the world. ”

“ When the fish is in a state of quiet, its dull colors present nothing remarkable; but if two be brought together, or if one sees its own image in a looking-glass, the little creature becomes suddenly excited, the raised fins and the whole body shine with metallic colors of dazzling beauty, while the projected gill membrane, waving like a black frill round the throat, adds something of grotesqueness to the general appearance. ”

“ There is no member of the commoner professions with whom I better like to meet than with a sensible fisherman, who makes a right use of his eyes. The history of fishes is still very much what the history of almost all animals was little more than half a century ago,—a matter of mere external description, heavy often and dry, and of classification founded exclusively on anatomical details. ”

“ The circumstance that these fishes can live in sea and fresh water has enabled them to spread readily over the globe, a few only being limited to particular regions; therefore, for the purposes of dividing the earth’s surface into natural zoological regions the brackish water forms are useless. ”

“ When they have done fishing, setting the birds on some high place, they loose the string from their necks, leaving the passage to the stomach free and open, and for their reward they throw them part of the prey they have caught, to each, perchance, one or two fishes, which they by the way, as they are falling in the air, will catch most dexterously in their mouths. ”

“ Among the many which I have at different times examined, I never found one containing fishes as large as those commonly swallowed by the Brown species, which, in my opinion, is more likely to secure a large fish by plunging upon it from on wing, than a bird which must swim after its prey. ”

“ So exclusively are fishes in general inhabitants of the water, that it excites our surprise and admiration to see any species emerging from that element, and voluntarily taking to the earth or to the air. ”

“ Stationing themselves near an opening in the rocks, they watch the motions of the fishes, as they shoot to and fro; and dart the spear, sometimes with one hand, but more commonly with both, frequently striking their prey with great dexterity. ”

“ Whether we live by the seaside, or by the lakes and rivers, or on the prairie, it concerns us to attend to the nature of fishes, since they are not phenomena confined to certain localities only, but forms and phases of the life in nature universally dispersed. ”

“ The bony fishes (Teleostomi) .—The bony or true fishes are distinguished from the lampreys and sharks and rays by having in general the skeleton bony, not cartilaginous, the skull provided with membrane bones, and the eggs small and many. In this group are included all the fishes of our fresh-water lakes, ponds, and streams as well as most of the marine forms. Fish life, being spent under [Pg 282] water, is not familiar to most of us, and beginning students are rarely helped enough in getting acquainted with the different kinds and the interesting habits of fishes. ”

“ And—and I guess there are lots of fishes swimming about, and their eyes shine, too, and they move just as soft, and don't make any noise, no more than if their mother was sick in the next room. And on the ground there seem to be like flowers, only they move and open and shut without any one touching them. ”

“ They have many kinds of ordinary fishes, and some which seemed to us extraordinary; as mullets, rays, thornbacks, old-wives with prominent brows, fishes like pikes, gar-fish, cavallios like mackerel, swordfishes, having snouts a yard long, toothed on each side like a saw, sharks, dogfish, sharkers, resembling sharks, but having a broad flat snout like a shovel, shoe-makers, having pendents at each side of their mouths like barbels, and which grunt like hogs, with many others. We once caught in an hour 6000 fishes like bleaks. ”

“ Fishes offer an extraordinary variety with regard to their habits, growth, etc., so that it is impossible to enumerate in detail the points of interest to which the travellers should pay particular attention. ”

“ Fresh-water Fishes.—Of the families confined strictly to the fresh waters the great majority are among the soft-rayed or physostomous fishes, the allies of the salmon, pike, carp, and catfish. In all of these the vertebræ are numerous. A few fresh-water families have their affinities entirely with the more specialized forms of the tropical seas. ”

“ When I tell you that there are said to be nine thousand different kinds of fish in all parts of the world, you will understand that even in a large aquarium you can see but few varieties. In England alone hundreds of fresh-water fishes are known, while those whose home is in the sea are much more numerous still. ”

“ These little fishes live in small troops, in the shallow pools and channels among the rocks of the coast, swimming and leaping to and fro with much agility. Their smooth lubricated skin, and general softness of flesh have been already adverted to. They are abundant enough, but their minute size renders them unworthy of attention, and in this country, we believe, they are never cooked ”

“ When feeding it uses the long tail in splashing the surface of the water, whilst it swims in gradually decreasing circles round a shoal of fishes, which are thus kept crowded together, falling an easy prey to their enemy. ”

“ They compose 95 per cent of all living fishes. In this group the skeleton is bony, the gills are protected by an operculum, and the eggs are numerous. Most of our common food fishes belong to this class. ”

“ Of Marine Fishes, some roam the wide ocean, some play around the coral islands of the tropics, others affect the mud, or the sands of the shallows; some linger near the estuaries of great rivers; others come in mighty armies around the coast at particular seasons, retiring again to the deep water in the offing; finally, some habitually keep near the surface, while others rarely rise from the vicinity of the bottom. ”

“ The fishes of the great depths are soft in substance, some of them blind, some of them with very large eyes, all black in color, and very many are provided with luminous spots or areas. A large body of species of fishes are semi-bathybial, inhabiting depths of 20 to 100 fathoms, showing many of the characters of shore fishes, but far more widely distributed. ”

“ The fishes of the sea, in their kingdom beneath the waters, have thus their highways and byways, as well as the animals upon the land, and are always to be found congregated where their great food-bearers, the currents, make their deposits. Animalculæ, infusoria, small fishes, minute crustacea, and shell-fish found on the algæ, or floating sea-weed, sea-nettles, and other food, are produced in the more calm latitudes, where the waters are comparatively still, taken up by the currents, and transported to the more congenial feeding-grounds of the whales, and other fishes. ”

“ The Class of Fishes possesses a greater number of known species than any other of the primary divisions of Vertebrate animals; perhaps, indeed, when we consider the ratio which water bears to land on the surface of our globe, and the peculiar difficulties which attend the study of these animals, it may not be extravagant to suppose that the species of Fishes exceed in number those of Mammalia, Birds, and Reptiles put together. ”

“ Large fishes should be opened in the belly, the entrails taken out, and the inside well rubbed with pepper, and stuffed with oakum. Small fishes put in spirit, as well as reptiles and insects, except butterflies and moths; and any insects of fine colors, should be pinned down in a box prepared for that purpose, with their wings expanded. ”

“ There is one great order of fishes for fresh water, another for salt; one great class of insects in hot climates, another in temperate; birds of the air, from the eagle to the humming-bird, from the ostrich to the bat, in localities adapted to their habits. ”