20 RPOLTA ZEYLANICA. 



The Ceylon mahseer {Barbus tor)* isco-specitic with the Indian 

 mahseer, though, perhaps, if a sufficient number of specimens were 

 measured, weighed, and compared, it would be found to constitute 

 an insular race of the species. 



With regard to dimensions, Mr. Thomas notes an interesting 

 correlation between the size of the Indian mahseer and that of 

 the rivers which these fishes frequent, unfortunately without 

 tabulating his observations nor even naming the rivers. "In 

 some rivers," he says, " they do not run above 10 or 12 lb., 

 whereas in others they have been taken weighing 40 lb. and 50 lb., 

 and even as much as 74 lb."t 



It is instructive to learn that the size, or what comes to the same 

 thing, the importance of the fish caught, does not bear any sort of 

 relation to the size of the bait used to tempt him, very small fishes 

 being often captured upon very large spoons and vice versa. 



The mahseer is essentially a ground-feeding fish, preferring a 

 diet of crabs, molluscs, and small fish. Like all members of the 

 Carp family (Cyprinidce)^ to which it belongs, its jaws are toothless 

 and it kills its victims by compression, afterwards crunching them 

 to fragments by means of teeth which are set far back in the throat, 

 borne upon the inferior pharyngeal bones ; these are the pharyn- 

 geal or throat-teeth. The mahseer will also devour seeds which 

 fall into the water, or rice which may be thrown in, as well as 

 aquatic weeds and insects. Finally it is, to a limited extent, a 

 surface-feeder, and will take the fly. The barbels or feelers, four 

 in number,! which fringe the mouth, are organs which are 

 specially characteristic of bottom-feeding fishes, such as the 

 barbels and catfishes (Siluridce). The fleshy lips of the mahseer 

 are well adapted to exert a powerful suctorial action upon rocks 

 and stones, by which it is enabled to detach the molluscs which 

 adhere to them. 



According to Mr. Thomas's observations, the mahseer travels 

 long distances up stream during the monsoon rains for the 

 purpose of depositing its spawn in the more or less protected head- 

 waters of the rivers. It does not spawn all at once, as the salmon 

 does, but lays its eggs in batches, repeating the process several 

 times in a season. This, it should be added, is inferred from 

 examination of the ovaries, and is not the result of direct 



* Synonymous with Jiarbus ino.sal. The Siyhalese name is Lela. 



t Mr. C. A. Hartley informed me last June (1902) that he had never taken one 

 weighing above 2 or 3 lb. from the Sitala-}xayy:a, but that probably larger indi- 

 viduals would be met with in the main Maskeliya river into which the Sltala- 

 ga^jga flows. The largest specimen received at the Museum measured somewhat 

 less than a foot in length. 



I A rostral pair and a longer maxillary \y,iir. 



