354 



FISHES. 



[Chap. X. 



fish. Mr. Whiting, the chief civil officer of the eastern 

 province, informs me that, on two occasions, he was pre- 

 sent accidentally when the villagers were so engaged, 

 once at the tank of Malliativoe, within a few miles of 

 Kottiar, near the bay of Trincomalie, and again at a 

 tank between Ellendetorre and Arnitivoe, on the bank 

 of the Vergel river. The clay was firm, but moist, and 

 as the men flung out lumps of it with a spade, it fell to 

 pieces, disclosing fish from nine to twelve inches long, 

 which were full grown and healthy, and jumped on the 

 bank when exposed to the sun light. 



Being desirous of obtaining a specimen of fish so ex- 

 humed, I received from the Moodliar of Matura, A.B. 

 Wickremeratne, a fish taken along with others of the 

 same kind from a tank in which the water had dried 

 up ; it was found at a depth of a foot and a half where 

 the mud was still moist, whilst the surface was dry and 

 hard. The fish which the moodliar sent to me is an 

 Anabas, closely resembling the Perca scandens of Dal- 

 dorf ; but on minute examination it proves to be a 



THE ANABAS OF THE DRY TANKS. 



species unknown in India, and hitherto found only in 

 Borneo and China. It is the A. oligolepis of Bleek. 



