260 



THE CLIMBING PERCH. 



This remarkable fish is common on the Florida Reef. We have kept it in our aquarium, 

 and found it wonderfully lively and interesting. It is one of the few fishes that seem to 

 have strong combative impulses. It will bear no trifiing, but strikes powerfully with its 

 tail, the sharp lance-like weapon proving dangerous to its foes. Pass a rod lightly enough 

 towards it, and the Surgeon instantly turns, and, facing the object, makes a thrust with 

 savage celerity. 



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 hom is not to be seen in the young 

 fish, and only attains its full dimensions when its owner has reached adult age. Some- 

 times the horn is longer than tlie 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 PoljTiesia. Its color 

 is brownish-gray, and the 

 dorsal and anal fins are 

 marked with longitudinal 

 blue stripes. The largest 

 specimen I have known of 

 measures twenty-two 

 inches in length, and its 

 horn is three inches long. 



The extraordinary 

 fish called, from its habits, 

 the Climbing Peech, is a 

 native of Asia, and is re- 

 markable for its apparent 

 disregard of certain natu- 

 ral laws. 



This singular creature 

 has long been celebrated 

 for its powers of volun- 

 tarily leaving the failing 

 streams, ascending the 

 banks, and proceeding over 

 dry land towards some 

 spot where its unen-ing in- 

 stinct warns it that water 

 is yet to be found. There 

 are several fish which are 

 known to have this power ; 

 the common eel, for exam- 

 ple, 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 loelieve 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. 



CLIMBING PERCR.— Anabas scandens. (One-half natural size.) 



