THE PIKE FAMILY. 225 



Guiana*", Surinam f, and many other places ; and Dr. Han- 

 cock, in a paper on the fish of Demerara, mentions a 

 species of the Pike family, the Yarrow, which is remark- 

 able for the same singular habit. 



There does not appear, however, to be anything peculiar 

 in the structure of the gills or fins of the English Pike to 

 enable it either to exist for any considerable period in mud, 

 or to travel overland from one pool to another. Such 

 travelling-fish are found both in Ceylon and elsewhere ; but 

 in every instance it would appear that nature has given 

 them peculiar organs or conformation to fit them for the 

 performance of these journeys, which are usually under- 

 taken in search of water or more plentiful food on the 

 drying up or exhaustion of their pools. The travelling-fish 

 of China, for instance, are in the habit of crossing the 

 paddy-fields from creek to creek, sometimes many hundred 

 yards apart ; and this they effect, according to the Chinese, 

 by means " of a kind of leg " {. 



The American Flat-headed Hassar, again, a descrip- 

 tion of which is given by Dr. Hancock in the ' Zoological 

 Journal/ makes, during seasons of drought, considerable 

 journeys overland, marching in large droves at night, and 

 moving (about as fast as a child would walk) by means 

 of a strong bony ray in the pectoral fin. This ray it uses 

 as an arm, or crutch, propelling itself, by the tail, with a 



* Callichtliys littoralis, Zoological Journal, vol. iv. p. 243. 

 t Loricaria, Sir J. E. Tennent's History of Ceylon. 

 \ Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise. 



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