ANABASIDEiE. 75 



ANABASIDEiE.— PHARYNGIENS LABYRINTHIFORMES. 



This very remarkable, though small family, offers a curious peculiarity in the 

 structure of the superior pharyngeal bones, which are partly divided into lamina 

 that intercept cells of various forms, capable of containing a certain quantity of 

 water. This apparatus, situated under the cranium, and secluded from the external 

 air by swelling gill-covers which press firmly against the body, furnishes the means 

 of moistening the gills when the fish leaves the water. In fact, fish of this family 

 have the singular habit of occasionally travelling some distance through the grass, 

 and it is said, even of ascending palm-trees, for the purpose of entering the pools 

 of water that collect in their cabbage-like tufts of leaves after a shower. 



The genera are distinguished from each other by the form of the ventrals, or of 

 some of the other fins ; the presence or absence of denticulations on the sub-orbitar 

 bones and opercular pieces ; the form of the mouth ; and insertion of the teeth. 

 Almost all the species, forty in number, are found in fresh waters, and they are all 

 Asiatic, with the exception of Spirobranchus, which exists in the rivers of the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and differs from the rest in possessing palatine teeth. The 

 genera are, 



Anabas 



1 



Colisa 



9 



Trichopus 



1 



Helostoma 



1 



Macropodus 



2 



Spirobranchus . 



1 



Poli/acanthus 



3 



Osphromenus 



3 



Ophiocephalus . 



19 



L 2 



