88 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIV, 



the Pipe fishes, are also taken occasionally and put in the same 



tank. 



Themale in both groups has the peculiar habit of carrying the 

 eggs his mate lays, within a long fold of the skin along each side 

 of the body— a real incubatory pouch. There they remain till 

 they hatch. One male sea-horse opened his incubatory pouch 

 one day early in last December and set free over 200 tiny babies, 

 miniatures of himself, but only 4 to 5 millimetres in length. 



Segregated rigorously by themselves are the little Coffer-fishes 

 {Ostracion coruutiis) creatures so feeble-looking that one wonders 

 how they manage to escape destruction at the jaws of larger fish. 

 Put them with other fishes, even considerably larger than them- 

 selves, and the reason is soon evident. Wounds appear on the sides 

 of the other fish, bleeding patches where the scales have been 

 bitten through. This is the work of the Coffer-fishes; harmless 

 though they look, their small teeth are powerful and exactly adapted 

 for nipping holes in skin and scales. Their own body is protect- 

 ed against damage by being encased in a box-like covering of bony 

 armour, with openings through which project tail, fins and eyes. 

 In Tamil they are known as Madumin (Ox-fish) from the two horn- 

 like projections on the upper part of the head. They never grow 

 to any large size. 



Baby Sharks are often exhibited in the table tanks. The embryos 

 of Dog-fishes usually develop within horny purse-like cases 

 anchored to weeds by strong filaments looking like catgut ; the 

 Rays also come forth from flattened purse-like egg capsules, but 

 the majority of the sharks are viviparous and often a brood of 

 young are thus obtained when a big shark is brought ashore by 

 the fishermen. 



Perhaps of all sea-animals the Octopus or Devil-fish is the most 

 curious. Though common enough in Indian waters it never 

 attains large dimensions ; the largest I have seen here had a 

 body smaller than a man's fist with arms not more than 20 inches 

 long. Smaller ones with a body of the size of a walnut and arms 

 3 to 4 inches in length, are numerous, and in Palk Bay are fished 

 for in an ingenious manner for use as bait in lining for fish ; shells 

 with the apex broken off are tied at intervals along a long line ; these 

 are sunk overnight, raised in the morning and the shells searched 

 for any Devil-fishes that have ensconced themselves therein. The 

 Japanese have a more refined method; instead of shells, they tie 

 narrow-necked vases of earthenware to their lines. 



