FISH OUT OF WATER.
IT is a common thing to say that people in strange circumstances feel "like a fish out of water;" but numbers of fishes are found out of water who seem to feel very comfortable. Many queer things have been seen in New Zealand, and among them is a species of running fish called Gobies, which get over the sands very rapidly at low tide, snapping at the half-buried shell-fish, and acting much more like water-birds than fishes. Another kind of Goby runs along the rice grounds of Asia ; and, in China, the pak kop, or white frog (also a fish), is carried around for sale alive, and when it falls to the ground, it will try to hop away.
An East Indian fish, with the neat little name of periopthalmus, jumps from rock to rock, like a veritable frog, when pursued, as it often is, by the natives; and only when in great danger of being caught, does it return to its native element. The Gobies are all "queer fish;" and " hundreds of them have been found high and dry in the grass, darting around as nimbly as frogs, raising themselves on the two pectoral fins, and looking around with their prominent eyes in a most comical manner; but it is extremely difficult to catch them."
In South America, queer-looking objects have been seen by travelers, floating down streams on submerged logs; and these fish have long, narrow bodies and heads,-the former fringed on each side, and the latter adorned with bunches of snake like whiskers. On they go, brushing past the great leaves and flowers of magnificent lilies, yet thinking probably of nothing but how to keep from tumbling off their logs and getting drowned.
"The curious cat-fishes, doras, and callicthys a renoted overland travelers. In the dry seasons, the streams in which the latter are found run low.
Then the entire body of fish start overland, a compulsory migration; but, with unerring instinct, they head for distant water. At times, the column, that is struggling through the grass, now erect, now on their sides, comes to a halt, and some of the fish burrow, as if in the hope of finding water below the surface. Birds and other animals prey upon them. But at last they reach water, not having been affected by their stay on dry land."
A Ceylon fish, in time of drought, tries burrowing first, and works down as far as four feet from the surface of the pool. If there is still a lack of water, back they wriggle, and take to the woods in a body, always managing to turn in the right direction to find the water they are seeking. They get themselves along by it backward and forward movement of the fins, although there are occasional jumps and standing upon end; and they keep on the grass as much as possible, as this helps to keep them up. In spite of its traveling propensities, this queer fish is very domestic, and builds an actual nest of leaves for its eggs, over which it watches as devotedly as a mother-bird.
Another fish found in the Amazon River, instead of going off in quest of water when its native supply becomes scarce, takes to the mud instead, and rolls itself around in it, until it
becomes a perfectly tight ball, except a little opening opposite the mouth for the creature to breathe through. In this condition, it can be carried off on a journey of months; and, on dissolving the mud in warm water, the inmate of this strange fish-ball will move around in the most lively manner. Says a popular journal: "The Rev. J. G. Wood possessed for four years a large lump of dry Nile mud, a hole in one of its sides showing that a mudfish was within it. The other day he carefully cut the lump open, and found the tail over its head, just as when it went in to sleep more than twenty years ago."
But the queerest fish of all is the fish that climbs a tree, the very last thing that a fish could be expected to do. Anabas scandens, or tree-climber, is the name of this remarkable specimen, which has the good sense to choose a palm tree, on whose trunk a sort of staircase makes the feat easier. It does not go exactly bird-nesting, but it is supposed to have an eye to the insects found in a small reservoir of rain-water collected in the axils of the leaves. The Anabas is found in the Malay regions, and is eaten by the poorer classes.
A shooting fish is perhaps as strange an object as a climbing fish; and, in Eastern aquariums, tame specimens of the long-beaked Chaetod on afford their owners much amusement by shooting the insects held over the water. It does this by ejecting a drop of water through the long bill, like a blow-gun; and it never fails to bring down its game.-
The Well-Spring