. The study of animal life . chief organ of locomotion is the tail ; the paired fins help toraise or depress the fish, and serve as guiding oars. In the climb-ing perch they are used in scrambling ; in the flying fish they aresometimes moved during the long swooping leaps. In eels andpipe-fish they are absent; in the Dipnoi they have a remarkablemedian axis. The unpaired fins on the back and tail and undersurface are fringes of skin supported by rays. Fishes are often resplendent in colours, which are partly due to Backboned Animals 255 CHAP. XVI pigments, partly to silvery waste-product
. The study of animal life . chief organ of locomotion is the tail ; the paired fins help toraise or depress the fish, and serve as guiding oars. In the climb-ing perch they are used in scrambling ; in the flying fish they aresometimes moved during the long swooping leaps. In eels andpipe-fish they are absent; in the Dipnoi they have a remarkablemedian axis. The unpaired fins on the back and tail and undersurface are fringes of skin supported by rays. Fishes are often resplendent in colours, which are partly due to Backboned Animals 255 CHAP. XVI pigments, partly to silvery waste-products in the cells of the outersktn, and partly to the physical structure of the scales. Some-times the males are much brighter than the females, and growbrilliant at the breeding season. In some cases the colours har-monise with surrounding hues of sand and gravel, coral and sea-weed ; while the plaice and some others have the power of rapidlychanging their tints. Fishes feed on all sorts of things. Some are carnivorous, others. Fio. 32.—The gemmeous dragoiiet {Catlionytiius lyra), the male above,the female beneath. (I 10m Darwin.) vegetarian, others swallow the mud. most of them worms,crustaceans, insect-larvae, molluscs, and smaller fishes are greedilyeaten. Strange are some of large appetite (<?._;••. Chiasniodon 7nger),who manage to get outside fishes larger than their own normalsize! Of their mental life little is known. Vet the cunning of trout,the carefulness with which the mother salmon selects a spawning-ground, the way the archer-fish (Toxotf^ spits upon insects, thenest-making and courtship of the stickleback and others, the pug-nacity of many, show that the brain of the lish is by no means asleep. 256 TJie Study of Animal Life part in The males are often different from the females—smaller, brighter,and less numerous. In some cases they court their mates, andfight with their rivals. Most of the females lay eggs, but a fewbony fishes and many sharks bring
Size: 1839px × 1359px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishe, booksubjectzoology
