x 
56 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
transplanted from one place to another. A gentleman who has 
interested himself in acclimatization experiments in Mauritius, 
Mr. A. Daruty de Grandpré, states that the rearing of the gourami 
is very easy, as it will exist in any kind of fresh water, flowing 
or stagnant ; its habits are herbivorous and insectivorous, and it is 
therefore valuable as a consumer of mosquito-larve ; it constructs 
a nest amongst aquatic herbs, where it deposits its eggs, which are 
defended by the male. 
About the middle of the year (1909), hearing that Mr. M. Kelway 
Bamber, F.I.C., F.C.S., was leaving on a visit to Java, and would 
be willing to secure some gourami for Ceylon, I wrote to him a letter 
giving recommendations for dealing with the fish in transit, and 
on September 15 Mr. Bamber returned to Colombo with a small 
consignment of young gourami, from 6 to 8 inches in length. Soon 
after their arrival in Colombo one or two died, and the remainder, 
24 in number, were placed in a circular cement tank, 8 feet in 
diameter, in the grounds of the Colombo Museum, in which top- 
minnows had been kept for a long time previously. The tank was 
covered over by a cadjan roof, but the heat was too great and the 
light too intense, and in spite of all that was done for them they ~ 
did not thrive. Some of them were afflicted with a skin disease ; in 
others: the eyeballs began to protrude, and this went on to such an 
extent that half of the eyeball projected from the socket. The 
symptoms of malaise finally became so distressing that I decided 
to send 20 of them to Peradeniya in three tubs covered with 
mosquito netting on October 14. The three remaining survivors, 
with eyes starting out from their sockets in a pitiful manner, were 
removed to a glass aquarium situated in a verandah and provided 
with bamboo cylinders and tiles, into and under which they could 
retreat ; here they have subsisted upon boiled rice, minced raw liver, 
and worms; to my surprise, in course of time, the eyes gradually 
worked back into the sockets. These three individuals have been 
transferred once more to the Museum tank ; one of them blind in 
one eye. 
The score of gourami arrived in Peradeniya in good condition, 
and were turned into thé large pond in the Gardens. As mentioned, 
this happened in October last, and it will be interesting to ascertain, 
in due time, whether the fishes have spawned; to encourage and 
assist them to spawn, fascines or small bundles of twigs should be 
placed here and there in the pond.* 
Anguluwa.—The largest fishes taken in the Panadure river, 
besides eels, are ““tambalaya” (Lautjanus jahngarah) and “ moda ” 

[* On November 5, 1910, Mr. E. E. Green and I made an examination of the 
pond at Peradeniya and found no signs of the gourami. Two native fishermen 
were employed, and they used a vertical net somewhat like a Seine net. After 
an exhaustive search they declared that there were no fish in the pond. The 
pond overflows into the Mahaweli-ganga, and it is probable that the fish have 
escaped to the river, although the ledge which guards the overflow would 
render this difficult but not impossible.—ED.] 
