of polyacanthus), and others, are
capable of long journeys on the level ground.[3]

[Footnote 1: Kirby says that it is "in pursuit of certain crustaceans
that form its food" (_Bridgewater Treatise_, vol. i. p. 144); but I am
not aware of any crustaceans in the island which ascend the palmyra or
feed upon its fruit. Birgus latro, which inhabits Mauritius and is said
to climb the coco-nut for this purpose, has not been observed in
Ceylon.]

[Footnote 2: This assertion must be qualified by a fact stated by Mr.
E.A. Layard, who mentions that on visiting one of the fishing stations
on a Singhalese river, where the fish are caught in staked enclosures,
as described at p. 212, and observing that the chambers were covered
with netting, he asked the reason, and was told "_that some of the fish
climbed up the sticks and got over_."--_Mag. Nat. Hist._ for May 1828,
p. 390-1.]

[Footnote 3: Strange accidents have more than once occurred in Ceylon
arising from the habit of the native anglers; who, having neither
baskets nor pockets in which to place what they catch, will seize a fish
in their teeth whilst putting fresh bait on their hook. In August 1853,
a man carried into the Pettah hospital at Colombo, having a climbing
perch, which he thus attempted to hold, firmly imbedded in his throat.
The spines of its dorsal fin prevented its descent, whilst those of the
gill-covers equally forbade its return. It was eventually extracted by
the forceps through an incision in the oesophagus, and the patient
recovered. Other similar cases have proved fatal.]

_Burying Fishes._--But a still more remarkable power possessed by some
of the Ceylon fishes, is that of secreting themselves in the earth in
the dry season, at the bottom of the exhausted ponds, and there awaiting
the renewal of the water at the change of the monsoon.

The instinct of the crocodile to resort to the same expedient has been
already referred to[1], and in like manner the fish, when distressed by
the evaporation of the tanks, seek relief by immersing first their
heads, and by degrees their whole bodies, in the mud; and sinking to a
depth at which they find sufficient moisture to preserve life in a state
of lethargy long after the bed of the tank has been consolidated by the
intense heat of the sun. It is possible, too, that the cracks which
reticulate the surface may admit air to some extent to sustain their
faint respiration.

[Footnote 1: See _ante_, P. II. ch. iii.