FIGHTING-FISH. 259 



Indiae fluminibus certum genus piscium, ac deinde re- 

 silit."* 



Another very singular little fish is the Fighting-fish, 

 which is kept in vessels of water for the amusement of 

 the Malays. If irritated, it immediately changes colour, 

 passing through shades of the most varied and brilliant 

 tints. When two of them meet, they fight with the 

 bitterest animosity, darting at each other with the swift- 

 ness of thought, the victor frequently killing his adver- 

 sary. They feed on small flies and worms, and are 

 easily preserved in glass vessels. A curious species of 

 Blenny is very common on the coast, hiding in the deep 

 cylindrical holes in the shallow pools left at low water, at 

 the orifices of which they may be observed protuding their 

 obtuse noses, and tentacular filaments, using them as a 

 decoy or bait like that famous angler the Pishing Prog 

 (Lophius piscatorius). The small fry swimming past 

 these tempting lures, are attracted towards them, when 

 the hidden Blenny suddenly darts upon them with the 

 greatest velocity, and drags them into its den, there to 

 consume them. So excessively cunning, active, and wary, 

 is this little Blenny, that all my endeavours to procure 

 a specimen proved unavailing. On the 31st of August, 

 1843, while on board the Brig 'Ariel', then lying off the 

 mouth of the river of Borneo, I had the good fortune to 

 hear that solemn aquatic concert of the far-famed Organ- 

 fish, or " Drum ", a species of Pogonias. These singular 

 fishes produce a loud, monotonous, singing sound, which 

 rises and falls, and sometimes dies away, or assumes a 

 very low drumming character, and the noise appears to 

 * Hist. Nat. Lib. ix. C. 35. 

 s2 



