160 fISH GALLERY. 



native of the Malay Archipelago, and has been introduced with 

 success into India and Mauritius. The Gourami is essentially a 

 vegetarian, but in a state of domestication is omnivorous and will 

 consume meat, fish, frogs, insects, worms, and many kinds of 

 vegetables, whence it has gained from the French colonists of 

 Mauritius the name " pore des rivieres," or " water-pig/' 



Fighting- The Fighting-fish or Pla-kat of Siam {Betta pugnax, 656) is 

 8 " widely known as a pugnacious little fish. When the fish is quiet 

 its colouring is dull, but in the presence of another of its kind it 

 becomes excited in demeanour and the body shines with dazzling 

 metallic colours, while the gill-cover is pushed out and forms a 

 kind of black frill around the throat. The fish makes repeated 

 darts at its antagonist, and the fight lasts until the fishes are 

 tired. If the fight be interrupted by removing one of the 

 combatants to another vessel, both become quiet and dull-coloured. 

 The Siamese keep these fishes in glass bowls for the express 

 purpose of watching the fights, and they will pit their favourite 

 against another's, and stake large sums of money on the result of 

 the fight. 



CiclriidcB; The Cichlidoe and the following family, the Pomacentridse, have 

 a single nostril on each side, whereas in all the other families of 

 Acanthopterygian fishes there are two nostrils on each side. 

 There are four gills on each side in the Cichlidse, but only 3^ in 

 the three following families, the Pomacentridae, Labridse and 

 Scaridae. The two lower pharyngeal bones are fused together in 

 the Cichlidje, but less completely than in those three families. 

 The Cichlidae (657-658, and fig. 73) are fresh-water or brackish- 

 water fishes of tropical and sub-tropical America, Africa and India. 

 Our knowledge of these fishes has greatly increased of recent years 

 in consequence of investigations in Lake Tanganyika, the fish 

 fauna of which is largely made up of Cichlid, or as they were 

 formerly called, Chromid fishes. The division of the family is 

 based upon the characters of the spines and teeth, the latter 

 exhibiting a wide range of variation. Etroplus (657) is an Indian 

 genus ; Tilapia (658) is African, and, like several other African 

 Cichlids, is remarkable for the care with which the female parent 

 guards the eggs from danger by carrying them about in the mouth. 

 This habit is, curiously enough, shared by an entirely unrelated 



