FISHES THAT TALK

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 August 1928, Page 10

FISHES THAT TALK

AVIRELESS EXPERIMENTS

It was reported recently that wire l less under-water experiments have had to be abandoned because of the singing of oysters. Coursing along each side- of a fish from gill-cover to tail is a seam-like line (the “lateral line”), which is really a. row of tiny apertures serving the part of a “vibra-tion-detector,” which in the highest fishes is at the fore end specialised into a primitive ear (says Surgeon Rear-Admiral C. M. Beadnail, in the “Daily Mail”). The acquisition of a means of sensing vibrations would be incongruous in the absence of some power of emitting them, and a very brief survey of the habits of these proverbially silent creatures will afford plenty of evidence of- the existence of the faculty of sound-intercourse. Every seafisherman has heard the “bark” of the conger-eel. _• ' The gurnards not only croon and grunt but make a rattle-like noise .by means of certain bones in their head. Boar-fishes and some of the sticklebacks made noises with their fins. Coffer-fish and lobe fish can growl and the horsemackerel can grunt like a pig, for which it is known to the Egyptians as the “Snorter.”

The maigrem-fish, an occasional visitor to the English coast, possesses quite a repertoire, for it can bellow, purr, buzz, and whistle; indeed, it has been seriously suggested that the noise made by shoals of this and the former fish gave rise to the fable of the alluring but fatal song of the Sirens. The little sea-horse, though it cam neither neigh nor whinny, makes a noise like the distant roll of drums.

Many fish sounds are obviously intended to frighten enemies. The toadfish when annoyed will puff itself out till it looks like bursting and will then, grind together its horny jaws, while its near relation the sun-fish grinds its teeth in rage, and the electric cat-fish of the Nile swears and spits.

There is a South African fish called doras that, walks for long distances over the land, using its pectoral fins as legs. If it encounters some object of suspicion it emits an alarming bass growl.