2*2 H err e: Philippine Eels 127 



The color of living specimens varies from very dark olive 

 green to very dark wine red, with belly and chin paler. 



Alcoholic specimens are generally uniform dark purplish 

 blackish, but may be very dark brown or reddish brown. A 

 number of preserved specimens examined have the tail so 

 strongly compressed as to present a marked contrast to the 

 body, with broad, white-margined dorsal and anal fins, so that 

 it greatly resembles in appearance the tail of certain salaman- 

 ders; the height of the dorsal may be from a third to a half 

 of the tail beneath. 



I have examined several hundred living specimens and have 

 kept a number in both salt- and fresh-water aquaria. They 

 are apparently very sluggish animals, and remain motionless 

 for hours, either buried in the mud or with the head and half 

 or more of the body raised high above the bottom, much as is the 

 habit of "tomato worms" and other large sphingid larvae. In 

 the Sambali language they are called tale-rec, because of this 

 habit. In many Philippine languages they are called palos or 

 palus, a word applied to all small eels, especially those of 

 brackish water, but not ordinarily applied to the fresh-water 

 eels. They love to lie partially buried in the mud, with only the 

 tail visible. When disturbed they usually swim off tail first, 

 a procedure which I regard as a protective device, since an 

 enemy would naturally seize upon the wiggling tail. If the tip 

 of the tail were bitten off, the head and trunk, more or less 

 buried in the mud, would easily escape. 



I have also examined numerous preserved specimens in the 

 collections of the University of the Philippines, the Philippine 

 Normal School, the Ateneo de Manila, and of Mr. Alejo Arce. 

 Most of them are from Manila Bay, but Mr. Arce's specimen is 

 from Baybay Creek, a tributary of Lake Buhi, while some of 

 those in the University of the Philippines collection are from 

 Apo Reef, west of Mindoro. 



This species is evidently abundant and widely distributed in 

 the Philippines but, in common with a number of fresh-water 

 fishes, has been overlooked by collectors. It was first collected 

 here by Jagor in Quingua River near Calumpit, Pampanga. 2 

 Casto De Elera reported it from Navotas, Manila Bay, while 

 Gunther also mentions a specimen in the British Museum as 

 being from the Philippine Islands. It is occasionally brought 



' Peters, Monatsber. Akad. Wiss. Berlin (1868) 275. 



