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. 



1 Transactions Linn. Soc. vol. the sea. " On parle d'un poisson 



iii. p. 63. It is remarkable, how- de mer qui, sortant de 1'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 Keinaud, Belations 



pated by an Arabian voyager a des Voyages faits par les Arabes et 



thousand years before. Abou-zeyd, Persans dans le neuvieme siecle t 



the compiler of the remarkable torn. i. p. 21, torn. ii. p. 93. 



MS. known since Renaudot'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 



