402 FISHES OF WESTERN SOUTH AMERICA 
Eigenmann, 1912, Mem. Carnegie Mus., V, 509; 
Fowler, 1939 (1940), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sei. Phila., XCI, 283, three, 130-205 mm., Contamana. 
Cichla multifasciata Castelnau, 1855, Anim. Amér. Sud, Poiss., 17, pl. x, fig. 2. 
Cichla bilineatus Nakashima, 1941, Bol. Mus. Hist. Nat. Lima, V, 73. 
Amazons northward 
17728, 1, 280 mm., Peruvian Amazon, Allen, 1920. 
17729, 3, 195-287 mm., Manaos, Allen, December, 1920. 
17730, 4, 246-280 mm., Contamana, Allen, August, 1920. 
17731, 3, 228-343 mm., Yarinacocha, Allen, September, 1920. 
17732, 2, 205 and 210 mm., locality record lost, Allen, 1920. 
Fie. 47. The fishing and merchant fleet at Para,on the Rio de Para, one of the mouths of the Amazon. 
Eigenmann, in the 1912 Guiana report, names Cichla ocellaris as the best 
food-fish of that country. After much experimentation I believe that this holds 
also for the upper Amazon. This opinion is not concurred in by the people born 
there, however. While the flesh is firmer and sweeter than that of most Amazonian 
fishes, and the bright colors and game qualities have an appeal of their own, the 
inhabitants Judge a fish by other criteria. They have acquired a taste for fishes 
most easily obtained. Among our sportsmen, on the contrary, their liking is in- 
versely proportional to the ease of catching. 
Our specimens were mostly taken from the clearer waters of the oxbow lakes 
and bayoux. They prefer to lurk in the shade of overhanging banks, or among the 
brush and trees fallen into the water. This makes them difficult to collect with 
ordinary gear, such as I had. Most of them were taken by borrowing the light 
