22 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



2 feet 3 inches and maximum breadth across the head of 4 inches ; 

 height of body behind pectoral fins 3i inches (without reckoning 

 the dorsal fin) ; weight (after removal of gut) nearly 4 lb. 



The Ophiocephalidae are commonly known as walking fishes on 

 account of the fact that they are able to exist for lengthened 

 periods out of water and can travel in a serpentine manner 

 overland. Day* witnessed the exhumation of some Ophiocephali 

 from the mud of a dried-up tank. They are capable of an 

 amphibious mode of respiration in virtue of the existence of air 

 cavities in the head (accessory to the true gill cavities), which 

 impart a more or less labyrinthine structure to the pharyngeal bones 

 though not so complicated as the elaborate saprabranchial 

 apparatus of the Climbing Perch {Anabas scandens), the '* Kavaiya " 

 of the Sinhalese. 



The climbing and burrowing fishes of Ceylon were treated at 

 considerable length by Sir E. Tennent, who reminded his readers 

 that these phenomena were known to the ancients. " It is an 

 illustration," he says on p. 344 of his work on the Natural 

 History of Ceylon, " of the eagerness with which, after the 

 expedition of Alexander the Great, particulars connected with 

 the natural history of India were sought for and arranged by the 

 Greeks, that in the works both of Aristotle [De Respiratione] 

 and Theophrastus [De Piscibus in sicco. degentibus] facts are 

 recorded of the fishes in the Indian rivers migrating in search 

 of water, of their burying themselves in the mud on its failure, 

 of their being dug out thence alive during the dry season, and of 

 their spontaneous re-appearance on the return of the rains." 



Last year I picked up a "Kavaiya " which was toiling along the 

 wayside in the Southern Province, and on arrival at the next 

 resthouse placed it in a basin of water for the night. At 

 daybreak the fish was found healthy and active on the floor, while 

 the basin was tenanted by a drowned rat. 



* Day, F., " Faunti lirit. Ind. : Fishes^^," Vol, II.. p. 3.59. 



