294 



THE CLIMBING PERCH. 



possess this singular property of walking over dry ground, so that the old proverb of a 

 fish out of water is, in these cases, quite inapplicable. Several instances of this re- 

 markable propensity have been collected by Sir J. Emerson Tennent, and have been 

 inserted in his valuable work on the Natural History of Ceylon. The following account 

 is written by Mr. Morris, the Government agent in Trincomalee : 



" I was lately on duty inspecting the bund of a large tank at Nade-cadua, which 

 being out of repair, the remaining water was confined in a small hollow in the otherwise 

 dry bed. Whilst there, heavy rains came on, and as we stood on the high ground, we 

 observed a pelican on the margin of the shallow pool gorging himself : our people went 

 towards him, and raised a cry of Fish ! fish ! We hurried down, and found numbers of 

 fish struggling upward through the grass, in the rills formed by the trickling of the rain. 

 There was scarcely water to cover them, but nevertheless they made rapid progress up 

 the bank, on which our followers collected about two baskets of them at a distance of 

 about forty yards from the tank. They were forcing their way up the knoll, and had 



CLIMBING PERCH .-Aaabas scandeas. 



they not been interrupted first by the pelican and afterwards by ourselves, they would 

 in a few minutes have gained the highest point, and descended on the other side into 

 a pool which formed another portion of the tank. 



. . .As the tanks dry up, the fish congregate in the little pools, till at last you find 

 them in thousands in the moistest parts of the beds, rolling in the blue mud, which is 

 at that time about the consistence of thick gruel. 



As the moisture further evaporates, the surface fish are left uncovered, and they 

 crawl away in search of fresh pools. In one place I saw hundreds diverging in every 

 direction from the tank they had just abandoned, to a distance of fifty or sixty yards, 

 and still travelling onwards. In going this distance, however, they must have used 

 muscular exertion enough to have taken them half a mile on level ground, for at these 

 places all the cattle and wild animals of the neighborhood had latterly come to drink, 

 so that the surface was everywhere indented with footmarks in addition to the cracks 

 in the surrounding baked mud, into which the fish tumbled in their progress. In those 

 holes which were deep, and the sides perpendicular, they remained to die, and were 

 carried off by kites and crows. 



