ICHTHYOLOGY. 



289 



Classifica- porate quickly, but remains falling drop by drop on the 

 tion — branchia, and keeping tliem sufficiently moist to cany on 



Acanthop- {|,g oxygenation of the blood. In conformity with this 

 terous specialty in the form of these organs, is the known habit of 



y ' , all the members of the family whose mode of litie has been 



ascertained of issuing at times from the rivers and ponds, 

 and travelling overland to considerable distances. We have 

 mentioned in a preceding page the habit of the Siluroid 

 Doras of travelling in bands fiom one ))ond to another as 

 they dry up in succession by the heat of the s\m, but they 

 do not possess any peculiar branchial reservoir like the 

 Labyrinthihranchs, or A/iabasidie, as this family is often 

 called. 



The roundness of the sides of the liead caused by the 

 convexity of the gill-covers, and the breadth necessary for 

 lodging the branchial apparatus, gives a good deal of tlie 

 aspect of a Mullet to this family. This likeness, and the 

 general character of these curious fishes, was known to the 

 ancients. Theophrastus, in lus treatise De Plscibus in 

 sicca viventibics, says that in India there are certain little 

 fishes which leave the rivers for a time and return to them 

 again, and that they resemble the fishes named by the Greeks 



Fig. 107. 

 Anabas scandens. 



Myxinos, or the Mullets. In 1797, M. de Daldorf, in a 

 memoir conmiunicated to the Linnean Society of London, 

 mentions that in 1791 he had himself taken an Anabas in 

 the act of ascending a palm tree (Borassiis ffabelliformis) 

 which grew near a pond. The fish had reached the height 

 of 5 feet above the water, and was going still higher. In 

 the effort to do this it held on to the bark of the tree by the 

 preoperciilar spines, bent its tail, and stuck in the spines of 

 the anal ; then i-eleased its head, and, raising it, took a new 

 hold with the preoperculum higher up. The fish is named 

 in the Malay language the " Tree-Climber." The fishermen 

 keep these fishes five or six days in dry vessels, and carry 

 them more than 150 miles to the Calcutta market. As the 

 Anabas is often met at a great distance from any water, it 

 is frequently reported by the natives of India to have fallen 

 from the sky. The jugglers carry them about to amuse the 

 people, and another of tlie family is reared for sport in the 

 kingdom of Siam. It is the Macropodiis pngnax of Cantor. 

 " When the fish is in a state of quiet its dull colours present 

 nothing remarkable ; but if two be brought together, or if 

 one sees its own image in a looking-glass, the little creature 

 becomes suddenly excited, the raised fins and the whole 

 liody shine with metallic colours of dazzling beauty, while 

 the jirojected gill-membrane, waving like a black frill round 

 the throat, adds something of grotesquencss to the general 

 appearance. In this state it makes repeated darts at its 

 real or reflected antagonist. But both, when taken out of 

 each other's sight, instantly become quiet. This description 

 was drawn uj) in 1840 at Singapore, by a gentleman who 

 had been presented with several by the King of Siam. They 

 were kept in glasses of water, fed with larvae of mosquitoes, 

 and had thus lived for many months. The Siamese are as 

 infatuated with the combats of tliese fishes as the Malays 

 are with their cockfights ; and stake on the issue consider- 

 able sums, and sometimes their own persons and families. 



VOL. XII. 



The license to exhibit fish-fights is farmed, and brings Classifica- 

 a considerable annual revenue to the King of Siam. *'°" 

 The species abounds in the rivulets at the foot of the hills ™° °P" 

 of Penang. The inhabitants name it Pla kat, or the Fishes. 

 "Fighting-fish;" but the kind kept specially for fighting is v ^ -^j 

 an artificial variety cultivated for the purpose" (Cantor). 

 The Trichopodus trichopterus is also very pugnacious ; and 

 the exquisite beauty of its varying iridescent metallic tints 

 make it a great acquisition to garden tanks. The TV. no- 

 bilis inhabits the rivers of Sikkim, in northern Bensral. 



Fig. HIS. 

 Osphromenus oljax. 



The Osphromenus olfax is well known in Batavia under 

 the name of Gonrami, for its excellent flavour when 

 brought to table. It attains the size of a large Turbot, and 

 Commerson relates that he had never eaten anything more 

 savoury and delicious, neither among fresh-water fish nor 

 among marine ones. He adds, that the Dutch residents in 

 Java rear this fish in large Jars, renewing the water daily, and 

 feeding it wholly on river plants, especially the Pistia nata?is. 

 But M. Dupetit-Thouars declares that he saw those kept in 

 a stew crowding to the mouth of a drain to feed on human 

 excrement. The Ophicephali are very tenacious of life, 

 and the Chinese bring them to market yet alive, though 

 tlieir entrails have been removed, and sell them in slices. 

 When the irritability of the flesh is so much exhausted 

 that it no longer quivers under the knife, its value is 

 greatly depreciated. This Chinese practice, however much 

 it may shock the feelings when described, is not worse than 



Fig. 109. 

 Ophicephalus striatum. 



the crimping of Cod on the London fish-stalls. The 

 Ophicephalus nmrginatus, Cuv. {yachua of Buchanan) is 

 often seen travelling among wet grass in the beginning 

 of the rainy season. 



Family XII.— LABYRYNTHIBRANCHIDjE. 



Poissons a pharyngiens labyrinthiformes, Cuvier ; Lahyrinthibran- 

 chii, Owen ; Anabantidcr,, Cantor. Upper pharyngeal bones fur- 

 nished with leaf-like /olds, inclosing cavities capable of retaining 

 water. Gill-covers convex, and fitting tightly to the shoulder. 

 Scales large, those on the head scarcely inferior in size to those on 

 the body. Body in most rather elongated, in some an oblong oval. 

 Jlouth, cleft past the eye in one genus only, in most little more than 

 half way to the eye, in all terminal. Gill-membrane generally shut 

 up under the scales. Ventrals sometimes without a spine, of from 

 one to five or eix soft rays, generally under the pectorals, sometimes 

 farther forward. Lateral line interrupted or continuous, curved, 

 deflexed, or straight. 



2o 



