284 DR. F. DAY ON INDIAN FRESHWATER FISHES. [May 14, 



especially in the early morning when the dew is on the ground. 

 Mr. E. L. Layard once encountered a number of " Perch-like fish," 

 probably the Anabas, travelling along a hot and dusty gravel road 

 under the midday sun. This migrating propensity of some of the 

 freshwater fishes of the East was no secret to the ancient Greeks, 

 who frequently commented upon it ; and although their statements 

 were disbelieved by the Romans, subsequent authors corroborate 

 their testimony on these points. In Europe it is well known that 

 Eels leave the water at certain periods, and, in fact, that the great 

 difficulty in the conservation of Eels arises from the trouble of 

 restricting them to the ponds in which they were originally placed ; 

 also in the West Indies there are instances of fishes migrating or 

 travelling by land. Dr. Hancock gives an account of the Flat- 

 headed Hassar {Doras hancockii), which, when the tanks dry up, 

 proceed in large droves, sometimes travelling an entire night in 

 search of other water. Mr. Campbell, a friend of Dr. Hancock's, 

 on one occasion saw a number of these fish thus marching onwards. 

 The Indians assert that they carry a supply of water with them for 

 the journey. They appear to possess great tenacity of life out of 

 water, even when exposed to the heat of the sun ; and their bodies 

 exude moisture, as they are described as being very difficult to dry, 

 and becoming moist again almost immediately*. 



Another instance may be given in the Doras crocodilif (Hum- 

 boldt), which was seen by this author advancing by leaps over the 

 dry ground, supporting itself on its pectoral fins. Another speci- 

 men was said to have climbed a hillock of sand 20 feet in height. 

 Again, the genus Callichthys, also inhabiting warm countries, is 

 stated t to have great tenacity of life out of water, which enables 

 it to seek other water when that in which it lives dries up. 



Marvellous accounts of the climbing-propensities of the Anabas 

 scandens have been extant from the earliest times. In the ninth 

 century, two Mahomedan travellers left a record of what they 

 observed in India§, and mention a sea (estuary?) fish which, leav- 

 ing its natural element, climbed cocoa-nut trees (toddy palms?), 

 and drank the juice of the plant. This idea was again revived by 

 Lieut. Daldorf in 1/91, who stated, in a letter to Sir Joseph 

 Banks II, that he had observed this fish five feet from the ground on 

 the stem of a palmira tree. Kirby^f rather improves upon this by 

 stating that they climb in pursuit of certain crustaceans which form 

 their food. In Malabar and elsewhere the natives believe that it 

 possesses this extraordinary power ; and its Tamil designation is in 

 consequence jiannieri, or " climber of palmira trees." Mr. Layard 

 also mentions** that, on questioning some fishermen as to the reason 

 why the staked enclosures for catching fish were covered with net- 



* Zoological Journal, No. xiv. 



t Cuv. & Val. vol. XV. p. 287. % I^id- p. 295. 



§ Translated by M. Reinaud. 



II Linnean Transactions, iii. p. 62. 

 ^ Bridgewater Treatises, vol. i. p. 144. 

 *» Magazine of Natural History, 1823, pp. 390-391. 



