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Show 284 DR. F. DAY ON INDIAN FRESHWATER FISHES. [May lb especially in the early morning when the dew is on the gr°u" ,,' Mr. E. L. Layard once encountered a number of " Perch-like fish, probably the Anabas, travelling along a hot and dusty gravel road under the midday sun. This migrating propensity of some of the freshwater fishes of the East was no secret to the ancient Greeks, who frequentlv commented upon it; and although their statements were disbelieved by the Romans, subsequent authors corroborate their testimony on these points. In Europe it is well known that Eels leave the water at certain periods, and, in fact, that the great difficulty in the conservation of Eels arises from the trouble ot restricting them to the ponds in which they were originally placed ; also in the West Indies there are instances of fishes migrating or travelling by land. Dr. Hancock gives an account of the Hat-headed Hassar (Doras hancockii), which, when the tanks dry up, proceed in large droves, sometimes travelling an entire night in search of other water. Mr. Campbell, a friend of Dr. Hancock's, on one occasion saw a number of these fish thus marching onwards. The Indians assert that they carry a supply of water with them for the journey. They appear to possess great tenacity of life out of water, even when exposed to the heat of the sun; and their bodies exude moisture, as they are described as being very difficult to dry, and becoming moist again almost immediately*. Another instance may be given in the Doras crocodilif (Humboldt), which was seen by this author advancing by leaps over the dry ground, supporting itself on its pectoral fins. Another specimen was said to have climbed a hillock of sand 20 feet in height. Again, the genus Callichthys, also inhabiting warm countries, is stated J to have great tenacity of life out of water, which enables it to seek other water when that in which it lives dries up. Marvellous accounts of the climbing-propensities of the Anabas scandens have been extant from the earliest times. In the ninth century, two Mahomedan travellers left a record of what they observed in India§, and mention a sea (estuary?) fish which, leaving its natural element, climbed cocoa-nut trees (toddy palms?), and drank the juice of the plant. This idea was again revived by Lieut. Daldorf in 1791, who stated, in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks||, that he had observed this fish five feet from the ground on the stem of a palmira tree. Kirbyi rather improves upon this by stating that they climb in pursuit of certain crustaceans which form their food. In Malabar and elsewhere the natives believe that it possesses this extraordinary power; and its Tamil designation is in consequencepannieri, or "climber of palmira trees." Mr. Layard also mentions** that, on questioning some fishermen as to the reason why the staked enclosures for catching fish were covered with net- * Zoological Journal, No. xiv. t Cuv. & Val. vol. xv. p. 287. + *n,irI _ 9Qt. § Translated by M . Eeinaud. + P* Zy&* || Linnean Transactions, iii. p. 62. *f[ Bridgewater Treatises, vol. i. p. 144. ** Magazine of Natural History, 1823, pp. 390-391. |
