144 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



6. The Luld's Enemy and the Adventurous Squirrel. — I was out at 

 Horana last week and noticed a black and white snake about two 

 feet long and as thick as a man's thumb holding a lula in its mouth 

 sideways by its back. The fish was about eight inches long, and 

 twice the thickness of the snake. It was bleeding freely where the 

 snake had hold of it with widely distended jaws. I got the fish 

 away and put it back in a part about 10 feet off, when it immediately 

 dived beneath the mud. The snake remained stationary, even 

 refusing to move on being pushed with a stick, and seemed either 

 exhausted or stupefied. 



Another rather curious incident occurred in a bungalow I was 

 staying at. There is a stuffed crocodile in the verandah, with its 

 mouth wide open. It lies well inside the house. A squirrel came 

 in and walked up to the crocodile, looked inside its distended 

 jaws, and then bolted. It seemed fully to realize that the beast was 

 stuffed. 



Colombo, April 14, 1908. A. L. HINE-HAYCOCK. 



7. Fishery Observations. — A knowledge of the breeding and 

 swarming habits and periods of marine, estuarine, and fresh water 

 fishes must form the basis of intelligent action in regard to fish 

 preservation and culture, and it is from this point of view that the 

 following notes are offered. 



I.— Shoal of Plotosus Fry. 



Plotosus is a genus of Siluroid fishes (sometimes called Cat-fishes) 

 represented in Ceylon waters by two species, P. canius, which may 

 be the sam^ as " Kalapu-anguluwa," although I am not certain 

 about this ; and P. arah, which has been called " Mudu-hunga." 

 The respective Tamil names for these species are given by Mr. A. 

 Haly in his list of fishes likely to be found on the coasts of Ceylon 

 (Colombo, 1890) as " Kelura " and " Kadalsungen."* The former is 

 an estuarine fish not found in the Red Sea ; the latter ranges from 

 the Red Sea to Japan and Polynesia. 



Whilst I was inspecting the Tamblegam window-pane oyster 

 beds on June 24, 1907, and passing a point called Peyaddumunai, 

 near the mouth of the Periya Palampat-aar, I noticed, at a distance, 

 a dense black mass floating close to the surface, which looked like 

 drifting seaweed, and was actually pronounced to be " pasi " by the 

 boatmen. Upon approaching it, however, it resolved it^self into a 



* At Niroddumunai the general term for these fishes is " kelethi," and they 

 distinguish between Nagalam or jMampalam kelethi and Muttei or Arthu 

 kelethi, the latter being a species of Macrones {M. gulio). 



