156 
SlLUROIDS.- 
-FISHES.- 
-Glanidians. 
the name of Glanidi (in the plural Glanidia), is of a 
nearly allied genus. Aristotle says that the Glanis is 
conspicuous among river fishes for the care that it takes 
of its young; for the female having discharged its 
eggs and departed, the male sets himself to watch the 
precious deposit, and keeps off other fishes for forty or 
fifty days, by which time the young have grown suffi- 
ciently to escape from their enemies. Agassiz, speaking 
of another member of the family, says. Who can see the 
Cat-fish {Pimelodus catiis) move about with its young, 
like a hen with her brood, or the Sun-fish {Poniotis 
vuhjaria) hovering over its eggs, and protecting them 
for weeks, without remaining satisfied that the feeling 
which prompts these acts is of the same kind with that 
which attaches the cow to its calf? The fishermen of 
South America report that many of the large Siluroids 
open their mouths for the reception of their young 
brood when danger presses, and return them to the 
water in safety when no longer threatened. This 
report is sustained by the observations of several 
travellers, who have observed multitudes of young 
fishes dropping alive from the mouth of an old one of 
the same species that has been speared. 
Fig. 43. 
Atipa (Callichthys thoracatus). 
According to Mr. Hancock, the Hassars {Doras and 
Callichtlnjs), locally named Yarrow, Atipa, Tamoata, 
and Mana, travel in the dry season overland in search 
of water, moving over the meadows in dense columns, 
and when the ponds dry up, burrowing into the mud. 
In the rainy season they make regular nests of leaves, 
and carefully cover up their eggs, which, during the 
process of hatching, are assiduously watched and 
courageously defended, by both males and females. 
The Callichthys wants the air-bladder. 
Aristotle mentions a fish by the name of Choiros, or 
Pig, as inhabiting the river Clitor in the Mediterranean, 
and as being one of the fishes that have the power of 
emitting sounds. The Choiros is enumerated by Strabo 
among the fishes of the Nile ; and it is said that the 
spines on its head prevent the Crocodiles from attack- 
ing it. It is admitted by authors to be a Glanidian, 
but the species has not yet been determined. M. 
Valenciennes ascribes the sounds which some fishes 
produce to the escape of air from their large swim- 
bladders, acted upon by strong muscles. This, if 
considered to be the only cause of such sounds, would 
confine their production to the Physostomi, which have 
the power of expelling air ; but we have already men- 
tioned the Gurnards, whose swim-bladders are closed, 
as being remarkable for grunting. 
The following extract may be compared with what 
has been said on the subject of sounds uttered by 
fishes at page 125 : — 
On occasion of a visit to Batticaloa, on the north 
coast of Ceylon, in September, 1848, Sir Emerson 
Tennent made inquiries relative to the musical sounds 
alleged to issue from the bottom of the lake. The 
fishermen vouched for the truth of the story, stating 
that the sounds are heard only during the dry season, 
and cease when the lake is swollen by the freshes 
after rain. 
“In the evening,” says Sir Emerson, “when the 
moon had risen, I took a boat, and accompanied the 
fishermen to the spot. We rowed about two hundred 
yards north-east of the jetty, by the fort gate. There 
was not a breath of wind, and not a ripple, but that 
caused by the dip of our oars ; and on coming to the 
point ahead}" mentioned, 1 distinctly heard the sounds 
in question. They came up from the water like the 
gentle thrills of a musical chord, or the faint vibra- 
tions of a wine-glass when its rim is rubbed by a 
wet finger. It was not one sustained note, but a 
multitude of tiny sounds, each clear and distinct 
in itself ; the sweetest treble mingling with the 
lowest bass. On applying the ear to the wood- 
work of the boat, the sound was greatly increased 
in volume by its conduction. They varied con- 
siderably at different points as we moved across 
the lake, as if the number of animals from which 
they proceeded was greater in particular spots; 
and occasionally we rowed out of hearing of them 
altogether, until on returning to the original 
locality, the sounds were at once renewed. 
This fact seems to indicate that the causes of 
the sound, whatever they may be, are stationary 
at their several points ; and this agrees with the 
statement of the natives, that they are produced 
by mollusca, and not by fish.”* 
Prenadillas {Arges cyclopum — Plate 4, fig. 23 — 
and Brontes iirenadilld) are small fishes which issue 
from the bowels of the earth in torrents of muddy and 
smoking water flowing from crevices in the sides of 
South American volcanoes, elevated sixteen or seven- 
teen thousand feet above the sea. Near Ibarra, and 
at other places, such vast quantities of these fish have 
at various times been cast on the land as to cause very 
fatal epidemic fevers. The eyes of these subterranean 
Glanidians are very small, like those of other fishes 
inhabiting caverns. 
The Clarias, Hales, or Heterohranchxis, and Sac- 
cobranchus, have branching supplementary leaflets 
springing from their gills, which spread in shrub-like 
tufts over the superior pharyngeals. 
The Stegophilus insidiosus of Reinhardt has the 
operculum set with curved spines, which most probably 
serve the same purpose with similar organs in a group 
of Hypostomes, namely, to enable the fish to attach 
♦ Ed. Rev., Oct., 1859. 
