476 THE SEA WOLF. 
The Sea Wolf possesses a terrible armature of teeth, not only in the jaws, 
but arranged in a double band on the: palate, and by means of these 
powerful weapons it can crush with ease the hard shelled molluscs and 
crustaceans on which it feeds. As may be imagined, the aspc.i of the Sea 
Wolf is far from prepossessing, its fierce head with the armed jaws, strong 
and cruel as those of the tiger or hyzena, and the smooth, slime-covered skin, 
giving it a most repulsive aspect. 
The Sea Wolf is sometimes taken with the hook, but is mostly found 
entangled in the nets together with other fish, and in either case it struggles 
violently as soon as it perceives the loss of its liberty. It will tear the nets 
to pieces with its teeth, and when hauled out of the water it still flounces 
about with such vigour, and bites at every object with such ferocity, that the 
boatmen usually stun it by a blow on the head before lifting 1t into the 
vessel, a very heavy stroke being required for the purpose. 
The general colour of the Sea Wolf is brownish grey, with a series of 
brown vertical stripes and spots over the upper parts; the under parts are 
white. On our shores it attains a length of six or seven feet, but in the 
northern seas, where it thrives best, it greatly exceeds those dimensions. 
There is an American variety where the vertical streaks are modified into 
round spots of blackish brown. : 
THE typical genus of this family is represented by several British specimens, 
of which the EYED BLENNY is one of the most conspicuous. This pretty 
fish is not very common, but has been taken on the southern coasts of 
England. From the elevated dorsal fin, and the bold dark brown spot that 
decorates it, this Blenny has sometimes been called the Butterfly Fish. In 
the Meliterranean it is tolerably common, and lives mostly among the 
seaweed, where it finds abundance of the smaller crustacea and molluscs. 
THE extraordinary fish, called, from its habits, the CLIMBING PERCH, is a 
native of Asia, and is remarkable for its apparent disregard of certain 
natural laws. 
This singular creature has long been celebrated for its powers of 
voluntarily leaving the failing streams, ascending the banks, and proceeding 
over dry land towards some spot where its unerring instinct warns it that 
water is yet to be found. 
Several species, of which the ANABAS SCANDENS has been chosen as the 
best example, possess this singular property of walking over dry land, so that 
the old proverb of a fish out of water is in these cases quite inapplicable. 
Several instances of this remarkable propensity have been collected by Sir J. 
Emerson Tennent, and have been inserted in his valuable work on the 
Natural History of Ceylon. The following account is written by Mr. Morris, 
the Government agent in Trincomalee :— 
“TI was lately on duty inspecting the bund of a large tank at Nade-cadua, 
which being out of repair, the remaining water was confined in a small 
hollow in the otherwise dry bed. Whilst there, heavy rains came on, and as 
we stood on the high ground we observed a pelican on the margin of the 
shallow pool gorging himself : our people went towards him, and raised a 
cry of ‘Fish! fish!’ We hurried down, and found numbers of fish 
struggling upward through the grass, in the rills formed by the trickling of 
the rain. There was scarcely water to cover them, but nevertheless they 
made rapid progress up the bank, on which our followers collected about 
two baskets of them at a distance of about forty yards from the tank. They 
were forcing their way up the knoll, and had they not been interrupted first 
by the pelican and afterwards by ourselves, they would in a few minutes have 
giined the highest point, and descended on the other side into a pool which 
formed another portion of the tank. 
