Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/31

Rh for its shape it could not have been known as a Trout. Trout when killed sometimes lose their colour; but here was a Fish which, but a few minutes before, was perfectly bright, and suddenly, while alive, had become totally discoloured and black in the water, though apparently uninjured in any way; and probably in a few minutes after being liberated, it would have regained its former beautiful hue."

The food of Fishes is for the most part animal. Some browse the seaweeds that wave around the rocks of the coast, and others nibble the soft parts of fresh-water vegetation; but the great majority are carnivorous. The immense number and variety of soft-bodied animals that inhabit the sea, the Actiniæ, the Medusæ, the Annellida, and the naked Mollusca, afford food to multitudes; others are furnished with strong teeth to grind down the newly formed parts of coral, and devour the living polyps; and a large number feed greedily on Star-fishes, Crustacea, and the shelled Mollusca. 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.

At first sight it seems a dreadful state of existence, this incessant preying of the stronger animals upon the weaker; and humbling indeed the contemplation of it should be to us, as a sad