marked; for the brute creation recognize each other more from the smell than from the sight; and in matters of identity and diversity appeal much more to their noses than to their eyes. After sheep have been washed there is the same confusion, from the reason given above."[1] It is certain that fishes possess the faculty of perceiving odours, and that various scents attract or repel them. A mangled carcase or fresh blood attracts Sharks, as well as the voracious Serrasal monoids of the South American rivers.[2] However, according to Bateson, "the range of taste and smells which fishes are capable of perceiving seems to be very small. Conger are equally willing to eat a piece of Squid or Pilchard, if it is covered or smeared with spirit, trimethylamine, turpentine, iodoform, camphor spirit, cheese of various sorts, anchovy extract, or Balanoglossus, as if it had been unpolluted. On the other hand, they will refuse cooked or tainted food, and food which has been soaked for a few moments in dilute acids. The same remarks apply generally to other fishes."[3]
Some Millipedes possess odoriferous glands emitting a disagreeable odour, due to the secretion of a fluid containing prussic acid. Mr. Pocock considers this "no doubt serves as a protection against birds, ants, &c, to these otherwise defenceless creatures." But, he adds—"in a Hornbill's nest in the British Museum, the plaster used to block the entrance is largely composed of crushed fragments of a large Spirostreptus."[4] The same author states that a Solpuga, "which frequents houses in Denver, Colorado, is said to be of service to mankind on account of its partiality for bed-bugs, a fact of some interest, as showing that the strong stench of cyanide of potassium emitted by these parasites is no protection against the attacks of the Solpuga."[5]
The theory as to the warning colours of the Skunk presents some difficulties.[6] It was first proposed by that philosophical
- ↑ 'Nat. Hist. Selborne,' Harting's edit. p. 317.
- ↑ Cf. Günther, 'Introd. Study of Fishes,' p. 110.
- ↑ 'Journ. Marine Biol. Assoc' (n.s.), vol. i. p. 247.
- ↑ 'Roy. Nat. Hist.' vol. vi. p. 212.
- ↑ 'Nature,' vol. lvii. p. 619.
- ↑ The Skunk has its enemies, and is not so unmolested as has been stated. In Patagonia the Skunk is one of the most abundant animals. The traveller D'Orbigny wrote that in that country the Skunk formed the chief food of the
