LIVING GOURAMI FROM MR. JAMRACH. 371 



anacliaris weed, and there remained with their heads 

 uppermost and perfectly motionless for hours. I am 

 convinced they were fast asleep. 



These fish measure three inches long, and an inch 

 deep at the shoulder. 



The healthy fish of this pair is a regular beauty. He 

 carries band marks down his sides of a lovely blue 

 colour ; his head also is silvery, and tinted with the 

 sheen of the peacock-blue. Along his lower side he 

 carries a keel of a very long fin. Each ray of this fin is 

 tipped with a lovely spot of carmine red. As he swims 

 about in the sun he is a very beautiful object. 



Each fish has attached to the skin, near the lower 

 aperture of the gills, two long feelers very nearly the 

 length of the body. These feelers are continually 

 moving about in the water, reminding me of a lobster 

 in an aquarium playing his horns. 



The gourami seems to use these feelers more as 

 balancing poles than anything else. 



Although they have plenty of water, both these fish 

 come up very frequently with a rush, like a trout rising 

 at a fly to the top of the water; here, with an exceedingly 

 quick motion, they make a bubble of air, but whether 

 they emit the air or take it in, I cannot decide. When 

 the room is quiet, the noise made by these fish in this 

 operation is like a drop of water falling with a noise that 

 sounds like the word '* pit " sharply pronounced. 



I find that he has teeth at the tip of his very prehen- 

 sile jaws. These teeth are so small that I can hardly 

 make them out ; they feel with the tip of the finger to 

 be rough like sandpaper. 



Thus it will be seen that there exists a fish which 

 promises extremely well to thrive in this country, and, 

 so far as 1 am personally concerned, I shall lose no oppor- 



