FISHES. 629 



forming a sort of parachute (Fig. 397), which sustains it when it 

 leaps out of the water. Several species are known. 



All Nature seems to conspire against these singular creatures, 

 while they have been gifted with the double power of swimming and 

 flying. They only escape from the Bonitas, and other voracious 

 fishes, which pursue them on the bosom of the sea, to expose them- 

 selves to the attacks of the inhabitants of the air. A crowd of sea- 

 fowl, such as frigate-birds, the albatross, and the gulls, carry on a 

 bloody war with them when they venture on flight. Enemies thus 

 pursue the unhappy fish whatever element it betakes itself to. Never- 

 theless it passes from one element to the other with an energy which 

 frequently defeats the attacks of its enemies. When it leaps from the 

 sea to the height of five or six feet, it sustains itself for several hundred 

 feet, even changing its direction. In its flight it may be compared to 

 that of the flying dragon ; the popular name given to it is said to be 

 derived from the grunting noise they make on being taken out of the 

 water. 



Here we may also mention the singular family of the Anabatida. 

 In the fishes of this family the superior pharyngeal bones are divided 

 into numerous and irregular little leaflets, which form numerous cells 

 situated under the operculum, which again serve to retain a certain 

 quantity of water. This water preserves the gills, moreover, when the 

 animal is on dry land, which permits them to live on shore, where they 

 frequently contrive to creep over great distances in search of water. 

 The genus Anabas, from avafaivw, to ascend, possesses this peculiarity 

 of organisation in a remarkable degree ; the Climbing Perch (A. 

 scandens) is enabled to leave the rivers and marshes and little water 

 courses of Borneo and Java, and other islands of the Indian Archi- 

 pelago, and creep through the herbage or along the ground by means 

 of inflexions of their bodies, and by the dentation of their opercula, 

 and by the spines of their fins. This fact, although only recently 

 acquiesced in by modern naturalists, was well known to the ancients, 

 and has been recorded by Theophrastus. 



The great family of the Mackerels, or Scomberida, is the most 

 important one in the order, comprehending some of the fishes most 

 useful to man, from their size, the excellence of their flesh, and their 

 abundance. The Tunny (Thynnus vulgaris), the Bonita (Thynnus 

 pelamys), and the Mackerel (Scomber scombrus], have yielded, from the 

 remotest antiquity, immense supplies of human food, both in the fresh 

 and preserved state. 



The tunny, while resembling the mackerel in many respects in its 

 general form, is rounder, and attains a much larger size, being some- 



