38 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vol. XIV/ 



element is represented by 10 species, most of which are Oriental in 

 an exact sense in that they are distributetl over a large part of the 

 Oriental Region. 



Thus we see that the two most important elements in the t'sh-fauna 

 of the Inle basin are the endemic Shan element and the Oriental element, 

 while small but distinct groups of Siamese and Burmese species occur. 

 In other words, the fauna is an isolated one. A considerable number of 

 adaptable Oriental species, whose wide range proves their powers of 

 migration, established themselves as members of it at a remote 

 period, but the number of species that have entered the district frcm 

 neighbouring countries in comparatively recent i imes is small. How far 

 this isolation is confined to the two connected basins and how far it is 

 of a more comprehensive kind, embracing the whole of the Shan 

 Plateau or even the Salween system generally, we do not yet know 

 precisely, but Boulenger has recorded from the Southern Shan States 

 six species that apparently do not occur in the Inle basin, and he did 

 not describe any of these as new, the majority being w^ell -known Indo- 

 Burmese fish and one or two characteristically Burmese. Yinciguerra, 

 moreover, has recorded from the Salween and its tributaries a large 

 number of species, only a small proportion of which were new and none of 

 v;hich were closely aUied to the peculiar Inle forms. So far, therefore, 

 as our knowledge extends it w^ould seem that a large proportion of the 

 endemic Shan forms are to be found most commonly if not exclusively 

 in the Inle and He-Ho basins, which were the longest survivors, though 

 one is now empty, of the old lakes of the country. 



INTHA NAMES OF THE INLE FISH. 



The fishermen of the Inle Lake belong to a tribe alien to the Shans 

 and speaking a dialect of Burmese thought to be akin to that spoken 

 in Tavoy. They call themselves Intha or Sons of the Lake. In a 

 pamphlet^ on the Inle fisheries published recently by the Government 

 of Burma I have given a list of the local names of fish, but at the time of 

 its publication was unable to identify many of the species specifically 

 owing to the fact that the collection had not been completely worked 

 out. The indigenous names were repeatedly checked both among the 

 fishermen and in the bazaar at Fort Stedman. Mr. C. E. Browne, 

 I.S.O., Political Adviser at Yawnghwe, has been kind enough to 

 revise their orthography. Nga is the ordinary Burmese for " fish," 

 but it is never omitted in referring to any particular species. 



Nga hkoii'ina ... ... Barbus sarana. 



Nga hku ... ... ... Clariashatrachus, 



Nga hpc ... ... ... Notojyterus noto2)terns, 



Nga lipcin... ... ... Cyprimis carpi 0. 



NgR hi ... ... ... Cirrhinii tatia^ 



Nga myesok-ma ... ... Nemachilus brevis. 



( M astacembelus oatesii. 



'' ^ J ••• ••• ^ M astacembelus caudiocellatus. 



^ A note on the Fisheries of the Inle Lake, Sotithzrn Shan States (Government Press, 

 Rangoon : 1917). 



