306 FISH OUT OF WATER 



themselves cheerfully to their altered circumstances, and 

 feed on an occasional frugal meal of bread and milk with 

 Christian resignation. 



Of all land-frequenting fish, however, by far the most 

 famous is the so-called climbing perch of India, which not 

 only walks bodily out of the water, but even climbs trees 

 by means of special spines, near the head and tail, so 

 arranged as to stick into the bark and enable it to wriggle 

 its way up awkwardly, something after the same fashion 

 as the 'looping' of caterpillars. The tree-climber is a 

 small scaly fish, seldom more than seven inches long ; but 

 it has developed a special breathing apparatus to enable it 

 to keep up the stock of oxygen on its terrestrial excursions, 

 which may be regarded as to some extent the exact con- 

 verse of the means employed by divers to supply them- 

 selves with air under water. Just above the gills, which 

 form of course its natural hereditary breathing apparatus, 

 the climbing perch has invented a new and wholly original 

 water chamber, containing within it a frilled bony organ, 

 which enables it to extract oxygen from the stored-up 

 water during the course of its aerial peregrinations. 

 While on shore it picks up small insects, worms, and 

 grubs ; but it also has vegetarian tastes of its own, and 

 does not despise fruits and berries. The Indian jugglers 

 tame the climbing perches and carry them about with 

 them as part of their stock in trade ; their ability to live 

 for a long time out of water makes them useful confede- 

 rates in many small tricks which seem very wonderful to 

 people accustomed to believe that fish die almost at once 

 when taken out of their native element. 



The Indian snakehead is a closely allied species, 

 common in the shallow ponds and fresh-water tanks of 

 India, where holy Brahmans bathe and drink and die and 

 are buried, and most of which dry up entirely during the 



