PARADISE-FISH. 4 1 1 



both estuaries, rivers, and tanks, and is distributed over India, Ceylon, Burma, 

 the Malay Archipelago, and the Philippine Islands. That this fish can travel 

 long distances on land, where it drags itself along by hitching its pectoral fins 

 round the stems of grass and other herbage, in the manner indicated in our 

 illustration, is perfectly well ascertained. With regard to its climbing powers 

 some amount of incredulity has been expressed, but it is very noteworthy that 

 its Malayan name (undi-colli) signifies tree-climber, while nearly a thousand years 

 ago certain Arab travellers were informed 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 suspending 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 upwards, 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 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 informs me that, on two occasions, he was present 

 accidentally when the villagers were so engaged, once at the tank of Malliativoe, 

 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 9 to 12 inches long, which were full- 

 grown and healthy, and jumped on the bank when exposed to the sunlight." 



The Oriental region is the home of another allied genus of fishes 

 (Poly acanthus), represented by several species, and differing from 

 the climbing perch by the absence of teeth on the palate, and the smooth margins 

 of the preorbital and opercular bones; the mouth being small and slightly pro- 

 tractile. The spinous part of the single dorsal fin is much longer than the soft 

 portion, the anal being similar ; the pelvic fins have one spine and five soft rays, 

 some of which are usually elongated ; and the caudal is rounded or pointed. The 

 lateral line, which is never complete, may be wanting. These fishes inhabit fresh 

 waters and estuaries along the coast of South- Eastern Asia, but are seldom found 

 any great distance inland. The pretty and brightly coloured paradise-fish is an 

 inhabitant of China and Cochin- China, and was long regarded as the representative 

 of a distinct genus. It is, however, now known to be merely a domesticated 

 variety of a species of Polyacanthus, although we are not aware that the 

 normal form has hitherto been discovered. From our figure it will be seen that 

 it differs from the ordinary members of the genus in the large and forked tail, and 

 likewise in the great development of the soft rays of the dorsal and anal fins. 

 Throughout China this fish is kept in confinement; and is even more suited to 



