PARENTAL CARE AMONG FRESH-WATER FISHES. 



491 



and when the ground and air are moist they can travel considerable 

 distances. This capacity is frequently exercised " in the beginning 

 of the rainy season,'' when they ma}^ be " often seen travelling among 

 wet grass ; " it is also made use of in the opposite season of incipient 

 drought. It is claimed by some that such emigrations are not en- 

 tirely pointless, and that instinct guides them to water, but such 

 claims have not been confirmed — at least not fully confirmed. 



Peripatetic showmen and jugglers avail themselves of this, for a 

 fish, remarkable aptitude for terrestrial progression, both in India 

 and China. They carry the fishes about, and when a fitting audience 

 can be obtained take the fishes from their receptacle and place them 

 on the ground, when they proceed to " walk " or " crawl about," 

 greatlv to the Avonder and amusement of the children. " Owiu"; to 

 the breadth of their bodies they are able to progress in a seri^entine 

 manner, chiefly by means of their pectoral and caudal fins, first one of 

 the former being advanced and then its fellow." The progression is 

 really of the nature of crawling. 



The Ophiocephalids are especially piscivorous, but their voracity 



Uljliioviijluilim harca. After Day. 



is by no means limited to fishes; indeed they "appear to consider a 

 frog, mouse, or rat as luscious a morsel as a fellow fish. A frog, in 

 fact, proves to be as captivating a bait for some of them at least as it is 

 to a pike. " Near Ganjam," India, a native official told Day " how 

 he had ventured out one night to see how nuirrul " — the walking 

 fishes or ophiocephals — " were captured. The fisherman was pro- 

 vided with a long flexible bamboo as a rod, and as a bait used a live 

 frog. Hardly had the frog splashed into the water when a moderately 

 sized murrul seized and swallowed it. Desirous of observing what 

 would occur next, the fish was left on the hook as a bait for something 

 else. Before hmg a large water snake Avas seen swimming toward it, 

 and soon had the fish inclosed in its capacious jaws, and in this 

 fashion all three were pulled together out of the water." It would 

 from this seem that tliey are active and feed by night as they also do 

 by day. 



Naturally when the species are so numerous, there is ccmsiderable 

 diversity in habitat and habits. '' Some of them reside in i^onds, 



