360 SUPPLEMENT ON 



It has very considerable relations with the acanthuri and 

 the chxtodons. 



We now arrive at the family of the Labyrinthiform 

 Pharyngeals, which is remarkable for a structure peculiar 

 to itself, consisting of a division into leaves of the surface of 

 a part of the upper pharyngeal bones, a division which pro- 

 duces cavities and small lodges more or less complicated, but 

 fit for retaining a certain quantity of water, pretty nearly like 

 the net-work of the paunch of the camel. This apparatus 

 is shut up under gibbous opercula, shutting closely against 

 the body, so that even after the fish has come out from the 

 water, that which is contained in these little lodges does not 

 so easily evaporate, but flowing over the gills hinders them 

 from drying up. Accordingly all the fishes of this family, 

 whose habits have been authenticated, possess the faculty of 

 coming out of the rivers and ponds, which are their ordinary 

 sojourn, and of proceeding to tolerably great distances by 

 creeping along in the grass or on the ground. 



It is most astonishing that beings which have been scarcely 

 remarked by the naturalists of our days were perfectly well 

 known to the ancients. Theophrastus, in his treatise on 

 fish that can exist on dry land, tells us that there are certain 

 small fishes in India, which come forth from the rivers for 

 some time, and then return, and that these fish resemble those 

 which the Greeks call /uvE,ivog, that is the mugiles. It is 

 impossible to designate more clearly some of their subgenera. 



The first is a small genus called An ABAS by M. Cuvier, 

 from the Greek word avafiaiva) (to ascend). 



These fishes, so very remarkable from their organization, have 

 gained a peculiar celebrity from a habit, which two Danish 

 observers, both resident atTranquebar, have witnessed in the 

 species which is common in that district. This is a habit of 

 climbing on the trees, and of living in the water which is 

 accumulated between their leaves. M. de Daldorf, a lieu- 



