The Indian species (which are provided with two long and filamentous ventral fins) have been formed into the genus Histiophorus; to which belongs the individual figured on the next page.  It is distinguished from others most closely allied to it, by having the immense dorsal fin of one uniform dark violet colour; whilst in its congeners, it is spotted with blue.  The fish from which the engraving has been made, was procured by Dr. Templeton, near Colombo.  The species was previously known only by a single specimen captured in the Red Sea, by Rueppell, who conferred upon it the specific designation of “immaculatus."[1]

[Footnote 1:  Trans.  Zool.  Soc. ii. p. 71.  Pl. 15.]

[Illustration:  THE SWORD FISH (MISMOPHORUS IMMACULATUS).]

AElian, in his graphic account of the strange forms presented by the fishes inhabiting the seas around Ceylon, says that one in particular is so grotesque in its configuration, that no painter would venture to depict it; its main peculiarity being that it has feet or claws rather than fins.[1] The annexed drawing[2] may probably represent the creature to which the informants of AElian referred.  It is a cheironectes; one of a group in which the bones of the carpus form arms that support the pectoral fins, and enable these fishes to walk along the moist ground, almost like quadrupeds.

[Footnote 1:  [Greek:  Podas ge men chelas e pterygia.]—­Lib. xvi. c. 18.]

[Footnote 2:  The fish from which this drawing of the Cheironectes was made, was taken near Colombo, and from the peculiarities which it presents it is in all probability a new and undescribed species.  Dr. GUeNTHER has remarked, that in it, whilst the first and second dorsal spines are situated as usual over the eye (and form, one the angling bait of the fish, the other the crest above the nose), the third is at an unusual distance from the second, and is not separated, as in the other species, from the soft fin by a notch.]

They belong to the family of Lophiads or “anglers,” not unfrequent on the English coast; which conceal themselves in the mud, displaying only the erectile ray, situated on the head, which bears an excrescence on its extremity resembling a worm; by agitating which, they attract the smaller fishes, that thus become an easy prey.

[Illustration:  CHEIRONECTES]

On the rocks in Ceylon which are washed by the surf there are quantities of the curious little fish, Salarius alticus[1], which possesses the faculty of darting along the surface of the water, and running up the wet stones, with the utmost ease and rapidity.  By aid of the pectoral and ventral fins and gill-cases, they move across the damp sand, ascend the roots of the mangroves, and climb up the smooth face of the rocks in search of flies; adhering so securely as not to be detached by repeated assaults of the waves.  These little creatures are so nimble, that it is almost impossible to lay hold of them, as they scramble to the edge, and plunge into the sea on the slightest attempt to molest them.  They are from three to four inches in length, and of a dark brown colour, almost undistinguishable from the rocks they frequent.