26 
THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM JOURNAL. 
eiri or Tree-climbei. It is also the practice of 
the native fishermen to pack these fish in earth- 
ern pots without water, using daily what they 
need for food, and under these forced conditions 
the fish live for a week or more. 
CLIMBING PERCH. 
Our second illustration is that of the Climbing 
Perch, about one-half its natural size. It will be 
observed in the case of this fish there appears no 
special external peculiarities, unless it be that 
the vertebral column is of unusual size and 
quite disproportionate to the bulk of the fish. 
The water cells already described are concealed, 
and yet when exposed by the dissecting knife are 
found to be of most curious structure and 
adapted in a marvelous manner to the purpose 
they are designed to serve. 
In a second instance, however, we find that 
to the walking fish, Antinnarius hispidus, nature 
has granted external organs of peculiar form and 
strength which, however they may compromise 
its grace of appearance, are yet of value to it in 
its migrations. In fishes of this genus, the carpal 
or wrist bones are very greatly lengthened and 
terminate in the pectoral fins, which are short, 
stiff and powerful, having, as shown in the il¬ 
lustration, more the appearance of claws than 
fins. This peculiarity of structure is supplemented 
by others which, taken together, give to the 
creature a most repulsive though grotesque 
appearance. 
WALKINC FISH. 
The geographical range of the walking fish is 
wide, extending over the Atlantic and Indian 
Oceans. It is a native, however, of the Indian 
seas and is found chiefly on the coast of Ceylon. 
Though it is not recorded of these latter fish that 
they possess the remarkable complication of 
structure which will enable them to take long 
overland journeys yet, owing to the peculiar 
fashion of their fins, they can walk along the 
rocks somewhat more awkwardly, but with the 
same certainty as a veritable quadruped. 
They are so variable in color, and in the de¬ 
velopment of certain special organs, that it has 
been found no easy task to define their precise 
zoological position ; hence Dr. Gunther is of 
the opinion that other fish in the list of separate 
species will ultimately be found to be but casual 
varieties of this one. As a marine fish it differs 
from its migrating rival the Climbing Perch, and 
hence, being a dweller in the sea, which never 
dries up, has little occasion to leave its native 
element unless it be to catch flies upon the 
rocks or hasten back to sea from some pool 
which the retreating tide has left empty and dry. 
FISH IN FACT AND FABLE. 
1 . 
DOLPHINS. 
WRITTEN EXPRESSLY FOR THE AQUARIUM JOURNAL. 
The Dolphins belong to the curious species 
of marine mammalia called Cetacea. They in¬ 
habit almost every sea in the world, though the 
finest specimens are found in the Mediterranean. 
Like the whale and the porpoise, they have a 
clumsy body, small eyes and sharp jaws, but 
with one distinguishing beauty, to which 
Barry Cornwall alludes in his poem on the sea : 
“ The whale it whistled, the porpoise rolled 
And the dolphins bared their backs of gold." 
They often follow in the wake of vessels, 
making the sea a sheet of brilliant color by their 
prismatic tints. 
Brought forth in purple, cradled in vermillion, 
Baptized in molten gold, and wreathed in dun, 
Glittering like crescents o’er a Turk’s pavilion, 
And blending all the colors into one. 
The naturalists of our day give' a scientific 
explanation of this phenomenon of their many 
hues, and tell us how it is caused by changes on 
the surface by muscular action ; but long ago, 
before people needed an encyclopedia to tell 
them what they saw, the sailors, cruising about 
the shores of Greece and Asia Minor, noticed 
this sea wonder and told all sorts of fish stories 
about it. 
“ Oh ye delicious fables ! when the wave 
And wood were peopled, and the air with things 
So lovely ! Why ! Oh, why has science grave 
Scattered afar your great imaginings ? ” 
Though the dolphin was sometimes called, 
from the shape of its jaw, the sea goose, yet the 
ancients evidently meant no disrespect by the 
title, for they adopted it as the sacred emblem 
which has so often puzzled antiquarians. The 
Greeks too, accredited the dolphin with super¬ 
natural wisdom and, believing that he was con¬ 
secrated to Apollo, gave his name to the famous 
Delphic oracle. Somewhat later he figures in 
the charming myth of Arion, the Lesbian musi¬ 
cian, who went to Sicily to compete for the prize 
in harmony ; on his way home some avaricious 
sailors who had no music in their souls, proved 
themselves ‘ 1 fit for treason, strategy and spoil ” 
by plotting to throw him overboard and seize his 
treasure. In answer to his prayers, however, 
they granted him permission to play one tune, 
after which, grasping his lyre, he leaped into the 
sea. Spenser describes the scene on the vessel 
just before Arion makes the desperate plunge: 
Then was there heard a most celestial sound 
Of dainty music which did next ensue. 
And, on the floating waters as enthroned, 
Arion with his harp unto him drew 
The ears and hearts of all that goodly crew, 
Even when the dolphin, which him bore 
Through the Egean sea from pirates view, 
Stood still, astonished at his lore 
And all the raging seas for joy forgot to roar. 
No sooner did Arion touch the water than the 
appreciative dolphin, which had followed the 
ship, charmed by the concord of sweet sound, 
rescued him from the watery grave and bore him 
to his destination at Corinth, where he appeared 
before the sailors on their arrival, in such splen¬ 
dor as to “make mad the guilty, and amaze in¬ 
deed the very faculties of eyes and ears." 
Perhaps it is owing to this ill turn that sailors 
to this day have a prejudice against the flesh of 
the dolphin as food. They believe it to be un¬ 
wholesome and sometimes poisonous. The last 
question they have a singular way of testing. 
Into the same pot in which they boil the dolphin, 
they drop a piece of silver money. If it comes 
out untarnished the meat is pronounced fit for 
the mess ; if, on the other hand, it does not pass 
the “hard money” test, it is thrown overboard, 
and it is to be feared, does not find Arion ready 
to return theTavors of its ancestors. How much 
of. the sailor’s theory is trustworthy, and how 
much superstition, it is hard to say. The flesh 
is probably not poisonous, but, being tough and 
dry, may well prove indigestible and disturb the 
slumbers of the experimenting tar, as he tosses 
in his hammock. The Roman Catholics of a 
few centuries ago regarded this food very differ¬ 
ently. As, in those days there was no distinc¬ 
tion made between fish and cetacea, such as the 
whale, poipoise and dolphin, the Romanists 
were allowed to eat freely, even in Lent, of the 
flesh of the dolphin though, in fact, it is as 
much meat as beef, mutton or venison. 
Theie is a tiadition not very well founded 
that when one of a shoal of dolphins is wounded" 
the rest unite, like the political joifrnals in a 
campaign, to pull him to pieces. But, leaving 
the realms of fiction, and coming down to the 
scarcely less romantic region of French chivalry, 
we again find our friend, the dolphin, in high 
feather, figuratively and literally, for he was borne 
on the coat of arms, surmounted by the waving 
plumes of the French princes of the blood. Like 
our own eagle he was rather too symbolic of free 
booting rapacity for the national emblem of a 
civilized country, but he was also a type of power 
and traditionally of intelligence. In his honor 
the sunny province in the south of France be¬ 
fore the stormy days of the Revolution was called 
Dauphine, and thence the heir apparent to the 
throne took his title of the Dauphin. 
Thus we trace the history of the dolphin from 
the remote ages, when fact and fable were so 
closely intertwined that all the power of modern 
research has never been able wholly to disen¬ 
tangle their roots, and it is curious to note what 
an imperial place he holds, both in myth and 
in history. In every instance he is made the type 
of the highest development of the country, the 
national ideal. In Egypt, the land of the sphinx 
and the solemn mysteries of the pyramids, he 
was the emblem of wisdom. Among the music- 
loving Greeks he was known as the giver of 
Apollo.’s lyre, and the Franks, whose ruling pas¬ 
sion was foreign conquest and territorial ag¬ 
grandizement, bore him before their conquering 
troops as the. symbol of power. It seems as if 
all the attributes of the dolphin had thus been 
exhausted and there were no material left for 
scientific observer or imaginative dreamer. Yet 
one fact, his wonderful brilliancy in death, es¬ 
caped the ancients and has furnished the mod¬ 
ern poets with an endless number of similes, of 
which, perhaps the most beautiful, and certainly 
the most famous, is Byron’s description of a 
sunset. 
“Parting day 
Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues 
With a new color as it gasps away, 
The last still loveliest, till ’tis gone, and all is gray.” 
Rachel Farley. 
SPECIAL MENTION. 
In addition to the regular and constant attrac¬ 
tions of the Aquarium, we are prompted to 
call the visitors attention to several objects of pe¬ 
culiar interest at present on exhibition. First 
among these is the Japanese Kingiyo. The history 
of this fish is given elsewhere, and though ac¬ 
companied by a carefully drawn sketch, yet only 
a personal examination of it will serve to justify 
the claim it has upon the attention of the student 
and naturalist. A near neighbor to this type ol 
marine beauty is its counter type of supreme ugli¬ 
ness, the Menopoma or Hell-bender. Regarding 
this creature also, full details will be found else¬ 
where, and yet it may be well to remind the 
visitor that the structure of this ugly creature and 
certain of its habits are of unusual interest, as are 
also those of the Proteus, which occupies an ad¬ 
jacent tank. 
It is needless, we trust, to add that the collec¬ 
tion of sea anemones or actinae is one of unri¬ 
valled interest. If in themselves these marvelously 
beautiful forms attract the eye, their scientific in¬ 
terest far exceeds any charm which their forms 
may possess. 
