2760 



THE BONY FISHES AND GANOIDS 



obliquely truncated. The species here figured (P. koelreuteri) has a wide range, 

 being found in the Red Sea, the seas and on the coast of India, where it ascends 

 tidal rivers and estuaries, as well as in the Andamans, the Malay Archipelago, and 

 the islands of the Pacific. Concerning their habits, Day writes that ' ' these fishes, 

 from the muscular development at the base of the pectoral fins, are able to use 

 them for progression on mud or for climbing. It is a most curious sight to see 

 P. schlosseri along the side of the Burmese rivers; at a distance the fishes appear like 

 large tadpoles, stationary, contemplating all passing objects, or else snapping at 

 flies or other insects; suddenly, startled by something, away they go with a hop,, 



MUD SKIPPERS DISPORTING. 



(Two-fifths natural size.) 

 (After Hilgendorf.) 



skip, and a jump, either inland among the. trees or on the water like a flat stone 

 or a piece of slate sent skimming by a schoolboy. They climb on trees and 

 large pieces of grass, leaves, and sticks holding on by their pectoral fins exactly as 

 if these were arms. Now and then they plant these firmly as organs of support, 

 the same as one places one's elbows on a table, then they raise their heads and take 

 a deliberate survey of surrounding objects." Of certain allied species, which he 

 places in a genus apart, the same writer remarks that they are essentially mud- 

 dwelling fish, and that if placed in a vessel of deep water they appear to be rapidly 

 drowned. In all, the remarkable prominence of the eyes is more or less completely 

 lost after death. On the slimy banks of the small affluents of the Hughli near 



