INTRODUCTION. XI 



Their colours, wonderful forms, and still more extraordinary habits, such as the saw-like pro- 

 longation of the snout in the Saw-fish, the curious lateral development of the Hammer-headed 

 shark, the elongated lower jaw in the Hemiramphus, and the developed pectoral fins in the Flying - 

 fish, must attract the attention of the most incurious. The brilliant colouration which obtains 

 in the East can scarcely be believed by those who have not examined fish when alive or just 

 fresh from their native clement ; the brilliancy of the Pterois genus, in fact, is so great, that on 

 showing a specimen just captured to a resident in Cochin, he could not be persuaded but that 

 some of the colouration was artificial. 



The migration offish from tank to tank, and the means at their disposal for that purpose, are 

 also most wonderful. While their gills are kept moist by water retained in hollow receptacles 

 above them, they are able to live, and thus when water fails in one spot to seek a more suitable 

 abode, as will be more especially alluded to in the genera Anabas, Poly acanthus, Ophiocephalus, 

 and Saccobranchus. Again, the alleged ability of the Anabas scandens (p. 1 33) to climb palmira 

 trees is believed in by the Natives of South India and Ceylon, in fact the species has once been 

 captured in such a situation by an European gentleman. That fish can live in the mud of ponds 

 from the period of their drying up in one year to the commencement of the rains in the next, is 

 also credited by many excellent observers, but is an opinion personal observation as yet has 

 neither confirmed nor refuted. 



Stocking new-made tanks with fish evidently receives the attention of the Natives of India, 

 for whenever one examines the artificial pieces of water, even the moats of fortifications, numerous 

 species of the finny tribes are apparent, in fact it is the rule to stock fresh pieces of water as soon 

 as such are collected. At Coondapoor in North Canara the Chanos argenteits exists in some large 

 tanks, where they are said to have been introduced by Hydee Ali, and for some years after the 

 British assumed the district they were under Government protection. But Natives usually stock 

 their new tanks with fish from the nearest pieces of water, irrespective of the size they attain, their 

 flavour, or their adaptability for that purpose. 



Dr. McClelland suggested in 1841 {Asiatic Researches, xix.) that at the various hill sanitaria 

 it would be practicable and easy to make rivaria, which would at all times yield a supply of fish. 

 He proposed damming up a portion of some of the valleys or large water-courses, and thus forming 

 lakes sufficient for the purpose. He at the same time pointed out the benefit that might lie 

 derived from care being taken when stocking large tanks, especially near military cantonments or 

 towns in which Europeans resided, to choose only good and eatable fish. 



Having personally observed this great requirement to exist on the Neilgherry hills, and 

 proposed to H. E. Sir W. Denison, K.C.B., the Governor of Madras, to attempt to remedy 

 it by trying to introduce the European trout by means of ova transported overland, he has 

 sanctioned the experiment being attempted in January, 1866, and it is to be hoped that it will 

 succeed. 



