138 



THE AIR BREATHING 



face, yet their gills are so constructed as to enable them to 

 extract some oxygen from the water, and thus to prolong their 

 existence, although not a sufficient supply to enable them to dis- 

 pense altogether with access to the atmospheric air. 



Notwithstanding the success of the experiment just described, 

 there were two species of fish, which, from their habits, I believed 

 to be air-breathers, but which I had not succeeded in drowning. 

 To complete the investigation, therefore, I enclosed, on a subsequent 

 day, two Poolloottas, two large and two small Hoongas, and two 

 Ankoottas, in receivers, from which all communication with the 

 air was cut off. The Ankoottas, being water breathing fish, were 

 included for the purpose of proving that the others died solely in 

 consequence of their exclusion from the air. Both the Poolloottas 

 died in less than a quarter of an hour. The larger Hoongas died 

 in about four hours. The smaller Hoongas were alive at the end 

 of six hours, when it was thought necessary to remove the' dead 

 fish, during which operation the surviving Hoongas had an oppor- 

 tunity of obtaining a fresh supply of air. They were then enclosed 

 again, along with the Ankoottas, and at the end of seven hours 

 were found quite dead, the Ankoottas, which were confined along 

 with them, being alive and apparently vigorous. 



I think I have thus established, with regard to eight species of 

 fish, inhabiting the marshes of Ceylon, what Professor Huxley states 

 would be a great fact, if established, viz., that they habitually 

 breathe air, and are incapable of surviving, for any length of time, 

 if excluded from it; and I have the pleasure of presenting you 

 with specimens, for your Museum, of those species which have 

 been actually drowned in the manner described. 



The delay, which has occurred in the publication of the Society's 

 Journal, enables me to add the following extract from a paper 

 which I drew up some time ago, giving an account of a singular 

 circumstance, which I have ascertained since the previous part of 

 this communication was written, in the natural history of another 

 species of fish, a water-breather, and, I believe, a Siluroid. 



"Having occasion to visit Caltura periodically, I was told, on one of 



