244 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



they are concerned, the inatter ends there. Not so the loola, which 

 appear to have a highly developed sense of parental duty, and not 

 only remain in the vicinity of their ova until the fry appear, but 

 will fight with extraordinary ferocity any intruder approaching 

 their eggs. 



I once watched a pair of loola, each about a foot long and probably 

 two or three years of age, guarding a spawn cast in one of the 

 Anuradhapura tanks. The feeble movements of the female fish 

 and the usual tameness of both in quite shallow water surprised 

 me considerably at first, until I saw moving toward them a large 

 fresh- water tortoise, evidently intent on a meal of fish roe. Pisci- 

 cultural students know, and doubtless most fish share our know- 

 ledge, that of all enemies to fish culture the water tortoise [Testudo] 

 is one of the most deadly. Should any other fish approach the 

 loola nest, two well-armed, widespread jaws, backed by ferocious 

 jealousy and dauntless courage, will promptly "attend to his case," 

 and lucky the intruder that gets away alive. But what of this 

 armour-clad robber, protected from helm to heel, who deliberately 

 waddles up to the precious spawn, and in three minutes devours 

 what might in a few months have been several hundredweight 

 of fish. The parents are utterly and entirely helpless. On this 

 particular occasion, however, the enemy received a rude shock 

 in the shape of a rifle bullet, which put an abrupt period to his 

 depredations, and incidentally no doubt frightened the parents out 

 of their wits. But so strongly attached are the loola to their ova 

 and fry, that in a very few minutes both were back again, 

 watching with evident satisfaction the dying kicks of the would-be 

 robber. I am unable to say if they eventually saw their labour 

 through to a satisfactory issue, but one cannot help hoping that 

 they did so. 



There are nine Indian species of ophiocephalus , all of which are 

 remarkable for the fact that they exhibit a strong parental affection 

 for their offspring. As I have already mentioned, they stoutly 

 resist any marauder that may approach their spawn, but this is not 

 by any means the sum of their care. For several days after spawn- 

 ing they remain on guard, until the warmth of the sun and the 

 mysterious processes of Nature convert the mass of jelly-like spa\sm 

 into myriads of fry, each one thin as a pin and shorter than a grain 

 of rice. 



In human families twins are (I understand) considered rather an 

 alarming eventuality, while triplets are a matter calculated to make 

 both parents do a lot of hard' thinking, but even quadruplets are 

 a mere nothing compared with a healthy loola family, which may 

 easily run to five thousand or more. Nothing daunted, however, 

 Mr. and Mrs. Loola, far from deserting their helpless family, as more 

 aristocratic fish are apt to do, now become more assiduous than ever, 

 and proceed to round up and swim off with their interesting progeny 



