Others, not very unlike, but whose home
is at the bottom of the sea, have opaque and mud-coloured bodies. We
find that many creatures are of the same colour as their dwelling-place;
butterflies are bright, like flowers, insects living on leaves are green,
desert creatures are yellow or sand-coloured, those which live among the
snow are white or grey, while the winter lasts, though some of them change
their coats during their short summer. In this way the hunters and the
hunted alike escape observation.
Fish have been divided into different classes: there are those which have
bony plates instead of scales, as the Sharks and Rays, and many fishes
which exist only as fossils; and those called the "splendid" fish, from the
brilliancy of their coats of mail, which lock together like ancient armour.
Most of them are extinct species, but the Sturgeon is one of these armoured
fishes. Then the Mud-fishes form another class. But by far the most
numerous is that to which the Bony-skeletoned fishes, with scales like
those of the Salmon, belong. A few species are destitute of any bony
or scaly covering; and one of them--the Electric Eel of South American
rivers--protects itself by giving a sharp electric shock to any creature
that comes in its way!
The eyes of fish are sometimes large, and they can see a long way, and
also hear very quickly. Turbot, plaice, and other flat-fish, which have no
swim-bladder, lie with one side in the mud at the bottom of the sea or
rivers--Can you guess in which side of the head their eyes are placed?
"In the uppermost, and sometimes _both_ eyes are there.
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