Cuar. X.] BURYING FISH. 353 
In South America the “round-headed hassar” of 
Guiana, Callicthys littoralis, and the “ yarrow,” a species 
of the family Esocide, although they possess no specially 
modified respiratory organs, are accustomed to bury: 
themselves in the mud on the subsidence of water in 
the pools during the dry season.! The Loricaria of 
Surinam, another Siluridan, exhibits a similar instinct, 
and resorts to the same expedient. Sir R. Schomburgk, 
in his account of the fishes of Guiana, confirms this 
account of the Callicthys, and says “they can exist in 
muddy lakes without any water whatever, and great 
numbers of them are sometimes dug up from such 
situations.” 
In those portions of Ceylon where the country is flat, 
and small tanks are extremely numerous, the natives 
are accustomed in the hot season to dig in the mud for 
fondeur.” To this passage there 
British Museum there is an unique 
is appended this note:—‘ Le pa- 
MS. of Manort pe ALMEIDA, 
triarche Mendes, cité par Legrand 
(Relation Hist. @ Abyssinie, du P. 
Lozo, p. 212-3) rapporte que le 
fleuve Mareb, aprés avoir arrosé 
une étendue de pays considérable, 
se perd sous terre; et que quand 
les Portugais faisaient la guerre 
dans ce pays, ils fouilloient dans le 
sable, et y trouvoient de la bonne 
eau et du bon poisson. Au rap- 
port de Pauteur de PAyin Akbery 
(tom. ii. p. 146, ed. 1800), dans le 
Soubah de Caschmir, prés du lieu 
nommé Tilahmoulah, estune grande 
piéce de terre qui est inondée pen- 
dant la saison des pluies. Lorsque 
les eaux se sont évaporées, et que 
la vase est presque séche, les habi- 
tans prennent des batons d’environ 
une aune de long, quils enfoncent 
dans la vase, et is y trouvent 
quantité de grands et petits pois- 
sons.” In the library of the 
written in the sixteenth century, 
from which Balthasar Tellec com- 
piled his Historia General de 
Ethiopia alta, printed at Coimbra 
in 1660, and in it the above state- 
ment of Mendes is corroborated by 
Almeida, who says that he was 
told by Joo Gabriel, a Creole 
Portuguese, born in Abyssinia, who 
had visited the Mareb, and who 
said that the “fish were to be 
found everywhere eight or ten 
palms down, and that he had eaten 
of them.” 
1 See Paper “on some Species of 
Fishes and Reptiles in Demerara,” 
by J. Hancock, Esq., M.D., Zoo- 
logical Journal, vol. iv. p. 243. 
? A curious account of the bora- 
chung or “ground fish” of Bhoo- 
tan, will be found in Note (C.) ap- 
pended to this chapter. 
AA 
