CiiAi'i'. 111. ( 'olowrs of MaJt sa r. -1 



fore, without claiming for my fiafa an) other than the one 

 name Barbits for, I will present drawings of several Mahseer, 

 The light brown Mahseer, Plate [, was caught at a place called 

 Subramani, in the South Canara District of the Madras Presi- 

 dency; the grey and u< 'l»l Mahseer, Plate II, at Siradi, in the 

 same districi ; and the light blue Mahseer, Plate 111, near the far- 

 famed Falls of c.airsniipa, in the Mysore territories. 



These Plates 1, II, and 111 are from drawings executed by a 

 native draughtsman in ( lanara. At the time they were done, some 

 seven years ago, I examined them closely enough, as I then thought, 

 but now I am not without doubts that they are faulty in some 

 minor details, and I have no means of re-comparing them with 

 nature. I can only present them as fairly close approximations, 



A pretty painting of a 51b. Mahseer caught in the Arienkavu 

 Pass, near Courtallum in the Tinnevelly District of the Madras 

 Presidency, was kindly sent me by a friend. In that the fish is 

 represented as having a deep chocolate-coloured hack and tins, the 

 colour blending into golden brown on the sides and gills, and 

 fading into white on the stomach. The iris of the eye is a bright 

 vermillion, instead of the ordinary light yellow, the pupil black 

 as usual. I am BOrry that I cannot reproduce the painting, but the 

 drawing is an artistic sketch without sufficient accuracy of detail 

 in the matter of Scales and tin rays. Plate IV, is a copy, by kind 



permission, of Figure 1, Plate ('XL, in l>r. Day's " Fishes of India." 

 It shows the large development of adipose continuations of the 

 upper and lower lips. The Haps are exhibited erect in the 

 drawing which shows well how they can stand free; but they 

 ordinarily he close against the fish. I have found this peculiar 

 formation occurring both in the fish represented in Plate Land 

 also in that shown in Plate 1 1, and 1 have sometimes found it in 

 the Plate II fish in the Gairsoppa river as well as in the Canara 

 rivers. It cannot indicate a mere variety for I have found it so 

 frequently. Does it indicate a species, or is it a temporary growth 

 like the beak of a male salmon in the spawning season. I do not 

 think it is the latter, because 1 do not clearly remember to have 

 ever Been it half developed, and yet my memory is not quite posi- 

 tive on this point I am certain, too, that I have observed it in 



Miiall immature Mahseer of 1 lb. in weight and even under; but 



that may or may not point to Mahseer breeding at an early a 



