"Mr. Rungasawmy Moodeliar, a native assistant of Capt. Jesse Mitchell of the Madras Government Central Museum, communicated to his superior the statement that 'this fish inhabits tanks or pools of water, and is called _Panai feri_, i.e., the fish that climbs palmyra-trees. When there are palmyra-trees growing by the side of a tank or pool, when heavy rain falls and the water runs profusely down their trunks, this fish, by means of its opercula, which move unlike those of other fishes, crawls up the tree sideways (i.e., inclining to the sides considerably from the vertical) to a height of from five to seven feet, and then drops down. Should this fish be thrown upon the ground, it runs or proceeds rapidly along in the same manner (sideways) as long as the mucus on it remains.' "These movements are effected by the opercula, which, it will be remembered, are unusually mobile in this species; they can, according to Captain Mitchell (and I have verified the statement), be raised or turned outwards to nearly a right angle with the body, and when in that position, the suboperculum distends a little, and it appears that it is chiefly by the spines of this latter piece that the fish takes a purchase on the tree or ground. 'I have,' says Captain Mitchell, 'ascertained by experiment that the mere closing of the operculum, when the spines are in contact with any surface, even common glass, pulls an ordinary-sized fish forwards about half an inch,' but it is probable that additional force is supplied by the caudal and anal fins, both of which, it is said, are put in use when climbing or advancing on the ground; the motion, in fact, is described as a wriggling one. "The climbing-fish seems to manifest an inclination to ascend streams against the current, and we can now understand how, during rain, the water will flow down the trunk of a tree, and the climbing-fish, taking advantage of this, will ascend against the down-flow by means of the mechanism already described, and by which it is enabled to reach a considerable distance up the trunk." (Gill.) =The Gouramis: Osphromenidæ.=—"The _Osphromenidæ_ are fishes with a mouth of small size, and destitute of teeth on the palate. To this family belongs the gourami, whose praises have been so often sung, and which has been the subject of many efforts for acclimatization in France and elsewhere by the French.