62 INTRODUCTION. 



which display the former propensity; but such is 

 the case with the red sparus (Spar us sigillatus), 

 a native of India, about the size and figure of a 

 perch, and it was accordingly formerly known by 

 the name of the climbing perch, or Perca scandens. 

 Attention to this previously unknown fact was 

 drawn, in 1791, by Lieutenant Dalsdorff of Tran- 

 quebar, in a Latin letter addressed to Sir Joseph 

 Banks, and published in the third volume of the 

 LinnaBan Transactions. He caught the fish in a 

 broad fissure of the bark of the Borassus flabelli- 

 formis a species of palm at the height of about 

 five feet from the ground ; and it was still busy in 

 making progress upwards, when its course was ar- 

 rested by the ruthless hand of the Naturalist. The 

 fact, that many fishes are capable of rising from the 

 water, and of maintaining, for some time, a kind 

 of flight through the air, is more generally known. 

 This is most remarkably the case with the fish 

 commonly called, par excellence, the flying-fish, 

 the Exoceti of systematists, and of which several 

 species have now been discovered. Nevertheless, 

 as the only surrounding medium which ministers 

 to the well being of all other vertebrated animals, 

 at least in a state of maturity, is the atmosphere, 

 so that which supports, for an indefinite time, the 

 life of fishes, is the water *. 



The solid parts of the bodies of most fishes are, 

 like those of the bodies of animals in general, some- 



* See a more particular account of these organs, when we 

 come to treat of the " locomotion" of fishes. 



