Instincts, Habits, and Adaptations 163 



concealed net. Another decoy is substituted and the trick 

 is repeated until the showy and quarrelsome fishes are all 

 secured. 



In Siam the fighting-fish {Belta ptignax) is widely noted. The 

 following account of this fish is given by Cantor ; * 



"When the fish is in a state of quiet, its dull colors pre- 

 sent nothing remarkable; but if two be brought together, or if 

 one sees its own image in a looking-glass, the httle creature 

 becomes suddenly excited, the raised fins and the whole body 

 shine with metallic colors of dazzling beauty, while the pro- 

 jected gill membrane, waving hke a black frill round the throat, 

 adds something of grotesqueness to the general appearance. In 

 this state it makes repeated darts at its real or reflected antag- 

 onist. But both, when taken out of each other's sight, instantly 

 become quiet. The fishes were kept in glasses of water, fed 

 with larvse of mosquitoes, and had thus lived for many months. 

 The Siamese are as infatuated with the combats of these fish 

 as the Malays are with their cock-fights, and stake on the issue 

 considerable sums, and sometimes their own persons and fami- 

 lies. The license to exhibit fish-fights is farmed, and brings a 

 considerable annual revenue to the king of Siam. The species 

 abounds in the rivulets at the foot of the hills of Penang. The 

 inhabitants name it 'Pla-kat,' or the 'fighting-fish'; but the 

 kind kept especially for fighting is an artificial variety culti- 

 vated for the purpose." 



A related species is the equally famous tree-climber of India 

 {Anabas scandens). In 1797 Lieutenant Daldorf describes his 

 capture of an Anabas, five feet above the water, on the bark of 

 a palm-tree. In the efi:ort to do this, the fish held on to the 

 bark by its preopercular spines, bent its tail, inserted its anal 

 spines, then pushing forward, repeated the operation. 



Fear and Anger in Fishes. — From an interesting paper by 

 Surgeon Francis Day f on Fear and Anger in Fishes we may make 

 the following extracts, slightly condensed and with a few slight 

 corrections in nomenclature. The paper is written in amplifi- 



* Cantor, Catal. Malayan Fishes, 1850, p. 87. Bowring, Siam, p. 155, gives 

 a similar account of the battles of these fishes. 



t Francis Day, on Fear and Anger in Fishes, Proc. Zool. Society, London, 

 Feb. 19, 1878, pp. 214-221. 



