1916.] B.SunpDARA Ray: Freshwater Fish of Madras. 277, 
discredited by most subsequent writers, I have no doubt it 
sometimes takes place. Gill records Mr. Rengaswamy Mudaliar’s 
and Capt. J. Mitchell’s (once Superintendent, Govt. Museum, 
Madras) experiments which show the reliability of the early reports.! 
Mr. Wilson of the Madras Fisheries tells me that he once trained a 
few of these fish to climb up a nearly vertical sheet of cloth, when 
held over the water in the aquarium in which he kept them. The 
highly mobile sub-operculum and its spines are the chief organs 
of climbing.” 
Many records exist of these fish leaving their native waters 
and migrating long distances on land to other ponds, and of their 
aestivating during the hot months.* Day describes how they pro- 
gress on land* either by lying flat on one side or by keeping their 
erect position. The power that the fish possesses of erecting its 
fins, scales and opercles assists it to move on land. 
The air-breathing habit of A. scandens is well-known, and 
its great tenacity of life enables it to live out of its native element, 
as Hamilton-Buchanan observes, even for six days. 
The breeding season extends from May to July.’ On the 2oth 
of May, 1915 a brood of very young fry were obtained from a 
pond. On the average they measured 17 mm. in length. They 
were of a light olive-brown colour above, becoming pale white 
below. On the sides there were eight (somewhat indistinct in live 
but quite distinct in preserved specimens) dark vertical bands 
extending from the pectoral to the root of the caudal fin. A dark 
terminal band was found at the free edge of the dorsal and anal 
fins. A very distinct ocellus, consisting of a black central spot 
surrounded by white, was present at the root of the caudal fin on 
either side. ‘The iris was red. 
By the 25th of July they had grown to 25 mm. in length; the 
anterior vertical bands were fading away, while the posterior ones 
were still clear; the ocellus continued to be quite distinct. A 
dark band was observed to pass from the corner of the mouth 
backwards and downwards, and another parallel to it below: the 
upper and lower lips were silvery. 
By November the fish had attained a length of over 8 cm. 
and had lost all traces of the vertical bands; the ocellus, however, 
remained as a black round dot. 
The young of A. scandens grow up rapidly; the fry in the 
marine aquarium, spoken of above, have grown to 80 mm., #.c., 
more than four times their original length (17 mm.) in the course 
of six months (May to November). Dr. Willey records a much 

L Jordan, Guide to the Study of Fishes, U1, pp. 367 and 368. 
2 Jordan, J. c., pp. 366—368. 
§ ‘Tennent, Nat. Hist. Ceylon, p. 354, 1861 (speaks of a specimen dug out 
from a depth of a foot and a half in the bottom mud of a dried-up tank). 
* Day, Fishes of Malabar, p. 133. 
6 According to Day the breeding season is June and July (Fishes of India, 
p- 370). I have seen them breed in May while Willey found a female egg-laden 
ate in January in Ceylon, Sol. Zeylan., VU, p. 92. 
