. The study of animal life. Zoology. CHAP. XVI Backboned Animals 255 pigments, partly to silvery waste-products in the cells of the outer skin, and partly to the physical structure of the scales. Some- times the males are much brighter than the females, and grow brilliant 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 rapidly changing their tints. Fishes feed on all sorts of things. Some are carnivorous, others. Fig. 52.—The gemmeous dragonet {^allionymus lyra), the
. The study of animal life. Zoology. CHAP. XVI Backboned Animals 255 pigments, partly to silvery waste-products in the cells of the outer skin, and partly to the physical structure of the scales. Some- times the males are much brighter than the females, and grow brilliant 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 rapidly changing their tints. Fishes feed on all sorts of things. Some are carnivorous, others. Fig. 52.—The gemmeous dragonet {^allionymus lyra), the male above, the female beneath. (From Darwin.) vegetarian, others swallow the mud. By most of them worms, crustaceans, insect-larvse, molluscs, and smaller fishes are greedily eaten. Strange are some of large appetite ( Chiasmodon niger), who manage to get outside fishes larger than their own normal size! Of their mental life little is known. Yet the cunning of trout, the carefiilness with which the mother salmon selects a spawning- ground, the way the archer-fish (Toxotes) spits upon insects, the nest-making and courtship of the stickleback and others, the pug- nacity of many, show that the brain of the fish is by no means Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Thomson, J. Arthur (John Arthur), 1861-1933. New York, C. Scribner's sons [printed at the Edinburgh press]
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1892
