350 
FISHES. 
[Chap. X. 
Tranquebar, have contributed their authority to the fact 
of this fish ascending trees on the coast of Coromandel, 
an exploit from which it acquired its epithet of Perca 
scandens- Daldorf, who was a lieutenant in the Danish 
East India Company's service, communicated to Sir 
Joseph Banks, that in the year 1791 he had taken this 
fish from a moist cavity in the stem of a Palmyra palm, 
that grew near a lake. He saw it when already five 
feet above the ground struggling to ascend still higher ; 
— " suspending itself by its gill-covers, and bending its 
tail to the left, it fixed its anal fin in the cavity of the 
bark, and sought by expanding its body to urge its way 
upwards, and its march was only arrested by the hand 
with which he seized it." 1 
There is considerable obscurity about the story of this 
ascent, although corroborated by M. John. Its motive 
for climbing is not apparent, since water being close at 
hand it could not have gone for sake of the moisture 
contained in the fissures of the palm ; nor could it be in 
search of food, as it lives not on fruit but on aquatic 
insects. 2 The descent, too, is a question of difficulty. 
? Transactions Linn, Soc. vol. the sea. "On parle d'un poisson 
iii. p. 63. It is remarkable, how- de merqui, sortant de l'eau, monte 
ever, that this discovery of Dal- sur la cocotier et boit le sue de la 
dorf, which excited so great an plante ; ensuite il retourne a la 
interest in 1791, had been antici- mer." See Eeinaud, Relations 
pated by an Arabian voyager a des Voyages faits par les Arabes et 
thousand years before. Abou-zeyd, Persans dans le neuvieme siecle, 
the compiler of the remarkable torn. i. p. 21, torn. ii. p. 93. 
MS. known since Kenaudot's trans- 2 Kirby says that it is " in pur- 
lation by the title of the Travels of suit of certain crustaceans that 
the Two Mahometans, states that form its food" (Bridgewater Trea- 
Suleyman, one of his informants, Use, vol i. p. 144) ; but I am not 
who visited India at the close of aware of any crustaceans in the 
the ninth century, was told there island which ascend the palmyra or 
of a fish which, issuing from the feed upon its fruit, The Birgus 
waters, ascended the coco-nut palms latro, which inhabits Mauritius, 
to drink their sap, and returned to and is said to climb the coco-nut 
