2782 



THE BONY FISHES AND GANOIDS 



of the existence in India of a fish that was in the habit of ascending cocoa-nut 

 palms to drink their milk. Apparently the only definite record that we have of a 

 European having witnessed such scansorial feats is from the pen of one Daldorf , 

 who wrote that in the year 1791 he had taken one of these fishes from a moist cavity 

 in the stem of a palmyra palm growing near a lake. He first observed it when 

 already five feet from the ground, struggling to ascend higher, and suspend- 

 ing itself by its gill covers; and bending its tail to the left, it fixed its anal fin in 

 the cavities of the bark, and sought by expanding its body to urge its way upward, 

 and its march was only arrested by the hand with which he seized it. Although 

 there is no reason to doubt this very detailed narrative, the circumstance that later 

 observers in India have never seen the feat repeated would seem to indicate that it 



PARADISE FISH AND TELESCOPE FISH. 



is but seldom the fish takes to actual climbing. Regarding the habit of this fish, in 

 common with the serpent heads, of burying itself in the mud of tanks, Sir J. E. 

 Tennent writes that " in those portions of Ceylon where the country is flat, and 

 small tanks are extremely numerous, the natives are accustomed, in the hot season, 

 to dig in the mud for fish. Mr. Whiting inform me that, on two occasions, he was 

 present accidentally when the villagers were so engaged, once at the tank of Mallia- 

 tivoe, within a few miles of Kottiar, near Trincomali, and again at a tank on the 

 Vergel river. The clay was firm but moist, and as the men flung out lumps of it 

 with a spade, it fell to pieces, disclosing fish from nine to twelve inches long, which 

 were full grown and healthy, and jumped on the bank when exposed to the sun- 

 light." 



