566 BULLETIN 188, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



diatoms. The note on this species by Annandale and Robinson ap- 

 pearing in Johnstone (1903) may be abridged as follows: 



The species of this genus [that is, B. 'boddaerti, pcctinirostria, and viridis] do 

 not diflfer from one another to any great extent in habits. The present 

 form * * * hops about like P. phya, in the hottest sunshine, and appears to 

 make a permanent burrow, which, however, is of a very simple nature, devoid 

 of a surrounding rampart. When alarmed it frequently wriggles, tail foremost, 

 into the mud, and this would seem to be the way in which its holes are commenced. 

 Its food * * * is largely of a vegetable nature, and we have watched it 

 browsing on a minute green alga that closely covers the surface of the mud- 

 flats at certain points. Unlike P. phya, it carries its dorsal fin rays elevated in the 

 air. This gives it a very distinctive appearance as the web of the fin is dotted 

 with conspicuous blue spots. Possibly the fin aids it in its terrestrial progress, 

 like the sail of an ice-boat, as the rays are lowered so as to lie prone whenever 

 it passes through a pool of water even too shallow to wet its dorsal surface ; in 

 such conditions a sail might cause it to topple over. The adults are very pug- 

 nacious, and if two individuals happen to meet face to face, a hostile demonstra- 

 tion always takes place; they rush together, raising and depressing their dorsal 

 fins with great rapidity, but do not appear to injure one another in any way, and 

 soon part and continue their course. 



The chief vertebrate enemies of the "walking" fish in the Patani States are 

 fishing hawks, monitor lizards, and jwssibly others. 



In Patani, as recorded by Annandale, the flesh of this fish is some- 

 times eaten raw, being considered a powerful tonic or aphrodisiac, 

 which probably accounts for the fish's extraordinary vigor in an ele- 

 ment so uncongenial to its class. 



In addition to bearing the general name of pla tin, which is shared 

 with gobies of this type, this species is called pla chum pruad or pla 

 turn pruud on the Menam Chao Phya and pla keua in Southeastern 

 Thailand. In the Bangpakong a name sometimes heard is pla Jcam- 

 pud, said to be of Cambodian origin. 



BOLEOPHTHALMUS PECTINIROSTRIS (Linnaeus) 



Gohius pectinirostris Linnaeus, 1758, p. 264 (China). 



Boleophthalmus pectinirostris Sattvage, 1883b, p. 151 (Menam Chao Phya).— 



Johnstone, 1903, p. 300 (Patani).~FowLEE, 1938, p. 213 (Patani [after 



Johnstone] ) . 



The local records for this goby, whose range extends from Japan 

 and China to Malaya, the East Indies, and Burma, are those of Sau- 

 vage (1883b), who reported the fish from the Menam Chao Phya, and 

 Johnstone (1903) who listed it from Patani. 



A length of at least 11 cm. is attained. 



Genus SCARTELAOS Swainson 



Scartelaos Swainson, Natural history ... of fishes, vol. 2, pp. 183, 279, 1839. 

 (Type, QoUus viridis Hamilton.) 



The genus Scartelaos is close to Boleophthalmus but may be rec- 

 ognized readily by the dentition, as given in the key. 



