278 Records of the Indian Museum. Wor. oxcie 
slower growth in the case of half a dozen young which he kept 
under observation at Colombo.! 
I have recently obtained two albino specimens. 
Uses.—A. scandens is a small fish attaining a maximum length 
of g inches. It is highly esteemed as food. It bears transport 
well and is employed for stocking tanks. 
Nandus nandus (H. B.) 
(Nandus marmoratus of the Fauna of British India.) 
Tamil—Mapanjt, or Seepu-meen (=comb-fish). 
Habitat and Habits.—A comparatively rare species which in- 
habits a few freshwater tanks in the interior. It is never abun- 
dant in any locality, feeds voraciously on small Cyprinidae and, as 
observed by Buchanan, is very tenacious of life.” 
According to Thomas the breeding season is May and June 
and again in December and January *, when this “‘ fish builds nests 
among the rushes at the margin of the water, deposits its eggs 
therein and keeps guard over them like a stickle-back.*”’ 
Lates calcarifer (Bloch). 
Tamil—Koduwa. 
Habitat and Habits—A common estuarine species which as- 
cends rivers and is frequently captured in fresh water. Immature 
specimens are met with in the Cooum river far above tidal influ- 
ence; Day records the capture of one at Mandalay in Upper 
Burma about 680 miles from the sea.° While it is common at 
the mouths of rivers and in backwaters, its occurrence at sea 
appears to be very scarce and occasional ; thus Willey records the 
remarkable fact that statistical reports show that this fish is never 
captured out at sea at Kalutura (Ceylon), where it is very common.® 
Pertwee’ observes that L. calcarifer breeds in backwaters and 
lagoons generally about January and February, but the breeding 
season is known to vary ; some spawn as late as March. 
Uses.—A highly esteemed food fish which attains a large size. 
Ambassis ranga (H. B.) 
Tamil—Sennel or Kaka Sennel. 
A. vanga appears to be very local in its distribution ; while it 
abounds in some freshwater ponds and ditches in the vicinity of 

! Willey, Spol. Zeylan., VI, p. 120. 
2 Hamilton-Buchanan, Fishes of the Ganges, p. 97. 
8 Thomas, Rep. Pisc. South Canara, p. 73 (1870). 
+ Thomas, J. c., p. 57. 
6 Day, Freshwater Fish and Fisheries Ind. and Burma, para. XXVIII. 
6 Spol. Zeylan., VII, p. 100 (1911). 
7 A. H. Pertwee, Notes on the Freshwater Fish of Ceylon. Spol. Zeylan., 
VIII, p. 246. 
