362 SUPPLEMENT ON 



out of the water for the longest time; it creeps upon the 

 earth for whole hours together : the fishermen keep it for five 

 or six days in a dry vessel. It is thus brought alive to the 

 markets of Calcutta, from the great marshes of the district of 

 Yazor, which are distant more than a hundred and fifty miles. 

 As individuals are sometimes to be met with at tolerably 

 great distances from the waters, the people believe them to 

 have fallen from heaven ; and they hold the same opinion, 

 and for the same reason, of some other fishes, which possess 

 the same property as the anabas, and which derive it from 

 the same structure, particularly the ophicephali. The 

 mountebanks and jugglers, with which India abounds, have 

 generally some of these fishes along with them in vessels, to 

 amuse the populace with their movements. 



On the habits of Polyacanthus, Macropodus, and 

 Helostoma we possess very little information; but, from 

 similarity of conformation, we may conjecture that they are 

 the same as anabas, and that they are likewise inhabitants of 

 the fresh water. This conjecture is strengthened by what 

 Mr. Buchanan informs us respecting several fishes of Bengal, 

 which are evidently of the same family, and similarly con- 

 formed. These fishes all inhabit the ponds, marshes, and 

 dykes of the country which is watered by the Ganges, and 

 without being very numerous in any particular part, they are 

 found almost every where. Although agreeable to the taste, 

 their smallness prevents them from being an important article 

 of food. It seems by no means doubtful that they can live on 

 dry land, like all the other fish which have a similar apparatus 

 to the gills. 



In Bengal all these fish are comprehended under the name 

 of Colisa, which, however, is more particularly the name of 

 the most common species. M. Cuvier uses it to designate a 

 genus in his great work. 



The most celebrated of the fishes which approximate to the 



