Chap. X.] 
BUSYING FISH. 
353 
In South America the "round-headed hassar" of 
Guiana, Callicthys littoralis, and the <( yarrow," a species 
of the family Esocidee, although they possess no specially 
modified respiratory organs, are accustomed to bury 
themselves in the mud on the subsidence of water in 
the pools during the dry season. 1 The Loricaria of 
Surinam, another Siluridan, exhibits a similar instinct, 
and resorts to the same expedient. Sir E. Schomburgk, 
in his account of the fishes of Gruiana, confirms this 
account of the Callicthys, and says " they can exist in 
muddy lakes without any water whatever, and great 
numbers of them are sometimes dug up from such 
situations." 2 
In those portions of Ceylon where the country is flat, 
and small tanks are extremely numerous, the natives 
are accustomed in the hot season to dig in the mud for 
fondeur." To this passage there 
is appended this note: — " Le pa- 
triarche Mendes, cite par Legrand 
(Relation Hist, d'Abyssinie, du P. 
Lobo, p. 212-3) rapporte que le 
fleuve Mareb, apres avoir arrose 
lane etendue de pays considerable, 
se perd sous terre; et que quand 
les Portugais faisaient la guerre 
dans ce pays, ils fouilloient dans le 
sable, et y trouvoient de la bonne 
eau et du bon poisson. Au rap- 
port de l'auteur de V Ayin AJcbery 
(torn. ii. p. 146, ed. 1800), dans le 
Soubah de Caschmir, pres du lieu 
nomme Tilahmoulah, estune grande 
piece de terre qui est inondee pen- 
dant la saison des pluies. Lorsque 
les eaux se sont evaporees, et que 
la vase est presque seche, les habi- 
tans prennent des batons d' environ 
xme aune de long, qu'ils enfoncent 
dans la vase, et ils y trouvent 
quantite de grands et petits pois- 
sons." In the library of the 
British Museum there is an unique 
MS. of Manoel de Almeida, 
written in the sixteenth century, 
from which Balthasar Tellec com- 
piled his Historia General de 
Ethiopia alia, printed at Coimbra 
in 1660, and in it the above state- 
ment of Mendes is corroborated by 
Almeida, who says that he was 
told by Joao Gabriel, a Creole 
Portuguese, born in Abyssinia, who 
had visited the Mareb, and who 
said that the "fish were to be 
found everywhere eight or ten 
palms down, and that he had eaten 
of them." 
1 See Paper " on some Species of 
Fishes and Reptiles in Demerara" 
by J. Handcock, Esq., M.D., Zoo- 
logical Journal, vol. iv. p. 243. 
2 A curious account of the bora- 
chung or "ground fish" of Bhoo- 
tan, will be found in Note (C.) ap- 
pended to this chapter. 
A A 
