NATURAL HISTORY. 



there I should advise any one who wants a Bombay mackerel to 

 look out for it. The Maratha name is " Wagada." 



The large mackerels, or tunnies, Thynnus, Pelamys, and 

 Cybium, mostly keep to deep water, and come to us under the 

 general name of " Sur-mahi, " (Persian = " Red-fish/') which we 

 render " Seer-fish, " as a very tolerable substitute for salt cod and 

 salmon. One species, Cybium guttatum is said to reach 6 feet long, 

 and they are all reported to take a ti'ailed bait or fly well in the offing, 

 so that they will afford sport to the generation of yachtsmen who shall 

 learn to sail outside the harbour. The last genus of the mackerels is 

 Echeneis, containing the curious sucking-fish, called on this coast 

 "Sakala" {E. Neucrates), and "Luchung, " {E. albescens). Of these, 

 under the name of " Chazo, " it has lately been written that the 

 Zanzibar fishermen put a ring on their tail with a line in it and 

 send them forth to attach themselves to big fish by the curious 

 sucker on the top of the head. No one here utilizes them in this 

 remarkable manner, though their habit of " getting a lift " from 

 other fishes is well known. The yarn had been spun before about 

 some South American fishermen, but with less detail and authority, 

 and it was not then very generally believed. At present, though 

 no European has actually seen this fishery, the evidence is good 

 enough for a strong probability, and there is some of a similar 

 practice in Madagascar with a fish, probably allied, called 

 "Tarudu." The Albacores, Bonitos, and " Spanish " Mackerel of 

 the Atlantic are all Scombridce (Mackerels). 



The next family, Uranosco'pidoe, are about as unlike the graceful 

 and beautifully coloured mackerels as anything can be. They 

 are represented here by the " Yekru " (Ichthyscopus inermis), 

 a deformed and blotchy creature, best described in Dr. Day's 

 words, " It made a curious noise, half snapping and half croak- 

 ing." 



But the Trachinidce, which follow, have a fine slender form, a 

 good flavour, and a pretty name; for two or three of their genus 

 Sillago are known in India as "lady fishes. " I am not sure whether 

 the name is a compliment to the shape of the fish, or to its nutritive 

 qualities, which recommend it in native medicine, to ladies in (or 

 just out of) " an interesting condition. " It is quite as good for the 

 most uninteresting of their worser halves ; it tastes like an English 

 smelt, and therefore, I suppose, some people call it a "whiting." 

 The Maratha name is "Murdi" The Sillogos are fish of the 



