THE CLIMBIXG PERCH. 293 



white band, which encroaches on part of the tail fin, and there is also a narrow white edge 

 to that fin. There are in certain individuals a few darkish streaks drawn across the body, 

 some black longitudinal stripes on the dorsal and anal fins, and in the young the sides are 



SEA SURGEON. Acantkurus 



marked with darkish waving lines. This fish sometimes attains a rather large size, a 

 specimen in the British Museum being nineteen inches in length. The genus is rather 

 comprehensive, containing between forty and fifty known species. 



NEARLY allied to the surgeon-fish is a very curious species, called the UNICORN THORN- 

 TAIL (Naseus unicornis], on account of the singular structure of the forehead, which is 

 modified in front into a long and horn-like protuberance, rather conical in shape, and 

 projecting forwards in a line with the body. This horn is not to be seen in the young fish, 

 and only attains its full dimensions when its owner has reached adult age. Sometimes the 

 horn is longer than the snout, but in most specimens it is slightly shorter. Each side of 

 the tail is furnished with two lancet-bearing plates, which are not movable. 



This species is found from the Red Sea to Japan and Polynesia. Its colour is brownish 

 grey, and the dorsal and anal fins are marked with longitudinal blue stripes. The largest 

 specimen in the British Museum measures twenty-two inches in length, and its horn is 

 three inches long. 



THE extraordinary fish, called, from its habits, the CLIMBING PERCH, is a native of Asia, 

 and is remarkable for its apparent disregard of certain natural laws. 



This singular creature has long been celebrated for its powers of voluntarily leaving 

 the failing streams, ascending the banks, and proceeding over dry land towards some 

 spot where its unerring instinct warns it that water is yet to be found. There are several 

 fish which are known to have this power; the common eel of England, for example, which 

 has frequently been observed crossing the fields in its passage from one stream to another. 

 I have even seen the eels creeping over rocks, and contriving, in some mysterious manner, 

 to crawl along the flat horizontal surface of an overhanging rock as easily as a fly walks on 

 the ceiling. But I believe that the eel only passes over moist ground, whereas the Anabas 

 seems quite indifferent to such considerations, and takes its journey over hard, dry, and 

 dusty roads, heated with the burning beams of the noonday sun, without appearing to feel 

 much inconvenience from the strange nature of the transit. 



Several species, of which the Anabas Scandens has been chosen as the best example, 



