106 GURNARDS WALKING ON SEA BOTTOM. 



yet been made public, except in the proceedings of the 

 Society. 



Dr. Buckland made a commmiication on other modes 

 of locomotion than swimming in the family of fishes, 

 and showed that the fins in certain genera perform the 

 functions of feet and wings. Several fishes of the 

 Lopliiid(B family, or " Fishing frogs," have the fins con- 

 verted into feet or paddles, by means of which some 

 species have the power of crawling and hopping on sand 

 and mud. The Climbing Perch ( Perca or Anabas scandeus) 

 of the Indian rivers is known to live a long time in the 

 air, and to climb up the stems of palm-trees in pursuit 

 of flies by means of spinous projections on its gill- 

 covers. Fishes of the Silnrus family have a bony en- 

 largement of the first ray of the pectoral fin, which is 

 also armed with spines, and this organ is not only an 

 offensive and defensive weapon, but may also give am- 

 bulatory movements along the bottom of the waters 

 which these fish inhabit. The flying-fish are notorious 

 examples of the conversion of fins into an organ of 

 movement in the air. 



M. Deslongchamps has published, in the '' Transac- 

 tions of the Linnffian Society of Normandy, 1842," an 

 account of his observations on the ambulatory move, 

 ments of the gurnard {Trigla) at the bottom of the sea. 

 In 1839 he had an opportunity of observing these move- 

 ments in one of the artificial sea-ponds or fishing-traps 

 surrounded by nets on the shore of Normandy. He 

 saw a score of gurnards closing their fins against their 

 sides like the wings of a fly in repose, and without any 

 movement of their tails walking along the bottom by 

 means of six free rays, three on each pectoral fin, 

 which they placed successively on the ground. They 

 moved rapidly forwards and backwards, to the right and 



