10 NATURAL HISTORY. 



waters, and barren basaltic reefs, are ill-suited to the development of 

 their characteristic coloration. 



The next family, Chromides, seems to be hardly represented 

 here, if at all. One species,. Eutroplus Suratensis, apparently receiv- 

 ed its specific name by mistake, the type specimen probably 

 came from Tranquebar (Day). The genus is found in fresh-waters 

 and estuaries on the Malabar Coast, and this species is said to take 

 a bait freely, and be good eating; "but is not so easily captured 

 in a net, as it buries itself in the mud, or dives under the net." - 

 It might be worth importing. 



We have now disposed of the Aeantltopterygii, or spiny-finned 

 fishes, of which the Perch is at the head r and begin the Anaean- 

 thini, or soft-rayed fishes, whose file leader is the cod. The 

 QadidbB f or God family, are very numerous in northern seas, in- 

 cluding such familiar fish as the Haddock and Whiting, the coarser 

 Hake and Ling, and the sporting Pollack and Coal-fish, well 

 known to marine Ay-fishers at home. In Day's enormous list, how- 

 ever, there are only two species of this family recorded as Indian- 

 fish. Both are of one genus, Bregmaceros. I have myself 

 obtained on this coast a single specimen of B. Atripinnis. Neither 

 species gets beyond the size of a man's finger. 



The next family, Ophidiidce, is hardly more important j but the 

 third claims a good deal of attention. If is that of Pfauronectidee 

 or flat-fishes proper, 



I have already, pointed out that the pomfiet is not a flat-fish. As, 

 he lies, even boiled, on a plate, one can see his blue back, white 

 belly, and one eye only. Turn him over, and the other side is the 

 same, from which any fisherman can learn at the hotel or club 

 where he eats his first breakfast in Bombay, that the pomfiet swims 

 on edge. It is a general rule with marine creatures that the under 

 colour is the lightest, and this is clearly a protective coloration, for 

 any diver knows that white objects are easiest seen in the water 

 below him, and dai'k things between him and the surface. The 

 rule is not -restricted to the sea, but extends to freshwater, though 

 it is there open to far more numerous exceptions, and it affects not 

 only fish, but nearly all sea fowl, many molluscs, aquatic reptiles 

 (as the crocodiles, turtles, and some sea snakes), and to a very 

 limited extent, the aquatic mammalia. 



Now suppose a sole lying beside the pomfiet. He shows only one 

 dark colour on the whole visible surface, but he shows two eyes, 



