The record-union., 1899-06-19
QUEER FISH STORIES.
SPECIMENS THAT HOP, SKIP
AND WALK.

|srECrMENs THAT HOP, SKIP
AND WALK.
They Can Live Ont 81 Water Half
an Hour-powerfu1
Breast Elns.
When one hears or reads of fish that
walk, one thinks instinctively of the
lungfsh or mudfish,-those curious
IeIeatu es, su.vivaIs of an ancient fauna.
that seem to have made some advance
toward becoming amphibfans, and
stopped short on the road. 1t is only
natural that one should recall them in
this connection. When the Australian
lungfish was first described it was
said to leave the streams and go out
among the reels and rushes on the flats
which are left uncovered at low tide,
and settlers averred that ON still nights
they often heard it moving on the river
banks. This, however has been shown
not to be the case; though 1t is prob
able that all the three lunghsh-from
Africa, Australia and South America
| respect1vely-can move easily through
the masses of aquatic vegetation in
| their native rivers and swamps.
The name walking fish. is generally
given to Some small species allied to the
I-gobies of our own coasts, and found on
the shores and estuaries Of West, Africa
and the countries bordering the Indo-
4 I'd ,
speaks of the very singular phenom-
enon presented by these fish, which, he
says, We're about the size of an Eng
lash mannow, and had two very strong
| breast fins. He and his paaty often
\ round them in very dry places, where
| 1T was at first thought they had been
/ left by the tide. Further observation
showed that the first had chosen their
situation voluntarily.
| Sir Joseph fixed his attention upon
one fish, and says that it immediately
! fled, 'leapang as ndmbly as a frog, by
means of its breast fins; nor did 1T seem
/ to prefer water to hand, for if seen in
/ the water it often leaped out and pro-
ceeded ON dry land, and when the water
was filled with small stones standing
i above the surface would leap from
stone to stone, rather than go into the
] water. In this manner / observed sew
] eral pass over puddles of water and
proceed on the other side, 1eaping as
/ before
| Other naturalists have added a good
deal to our knowledge of these strange
! fish, Hickson found them in the Cele-
/ bes, and described them, as did also
/ Woodford, who met with them in man
grove swamps in the Pacific, where, he
says, they are exceedingly common,
hopping and climbing among the
aerial roots, to which they cling by
means of their strong pectoral fins. and
jumping off into the water when any
one approaches. He also found them
| in wells a long distance from other
water, in situations to reach which they
would have had to make a considera BILE
journey overland. Mose.ey saw them,
during the voyage of the Challenger,
and in his Notes of Naturalist he
| tells how he chased one, in TTdncorna-
| lee harbor, which skipped along the
water by a series Of jumps until it
reached a rock, where it sat on ledge
in the sun, and waited till he came UP,
when it skipped along to another rock
l.
been known, and DR. Gunther lent one
to Moseiey, who drew IT for an ilIustra :
tion to his Notes" it was not till some
three years ago that living examples
wre brought to Europe The credit of
introducing these strange fish Into zoo
logical collections is due to DR. H.
Forbes, director of the Liverpool Mu-
scum, where they have done remark
ably well in shallow saltwater tanks,
kept at a temperature of about 80 de-
grees Fahrenheit When they came
they We're exceedingly tiTnid; but this
ishyness soon wore off, and in short
time they learned to recognize the at
tendant as he came to feed them. DR..
Forbes speaks of their havingtwo modes
of motion on land-a hop or spring and
a walk. In the former case the pee
toraf fins are used simultaneously as a
base whence to take off, and in the lat
ter Alternately, when a curious triple
ftrack is left in the soft mud.
At the meeting of the British Asso-
citation in 1856 Hickson pointed out that
these fish, IN the Celebes, always kept
the tail under water, and this led Pro-
fessor A. G. Haddotn, during the Torres
Straits expedition. to make some ex-
periments, which induced him to be-
lieve that the tail does not assist in
reSpira ton, and the microscope showed
that the circulation of the blood was
exceptionally vigorous in that organ.
But with these conclusions DR.. Forbes
is unable to agree. The specimens
which have lived in the aquarium of
| the Liverpool Museum have been kept
under close and continuous observation,
| with the result that the director be-
lieves that no aid can be lent to res
piration by the immersed portion of the
tail. The gill chambers of these fish
are capacious, and, in his opinion, it is
! probable that a, sufficient amount Of
| water can be retained in them to keep
up respiration during the time the fish
are out of the water. He has timed
| individuals, both in their natural con-
dition and in the aquarium, and has
found that they would sit for more than
| half an hour without a bath They
would then walk slowly into the water,
and go below the surface for a second,
| come up and rest for brief space and
walk slowly out again onto the mar
gin.
| DR. Forbes has been very generous
with the specimens not required for the
| Liverpool Museum In December last
he presented several to the Geological
Gardens, but they did not thrive, and
in short time all died. He has quite
recently sent another consignment, for
which home has been found in large
tank in the new tortoise house. These
specimens are doing very well, and it
n f7ly-c 1.