22 TIic Nut urn) History of fin Mult.*,-, ,-. I !hapt. hi. 



Plate V is a drawing of the Bawanny Mahseer. The 

 Bawanny is an affluent of the Cavery in the Madias Presidency, 

 a river that runs eastwards. The rivers which hold the Mahseer 

 named above all run westwards. The Bawanny Mahseer, it will be 

 observed, is much deeper and more high backed than the other 

 Mahseers. To insure accuracy of drawing, every detail of form 

 has in all cases been taken life-size by compass, and then the 

 reduction from that drawing lias nut been made by eye, but in 

 numerous comparative squares, so that we are insured against 

 even a single scale being too high or too low. 



I am sorry that I cannot represent the colours of this fish. It 

 was a must handsome tisli. It would have been difficult to do 

 justice to the rich golden hue which shone on the gill covers, and 

 was the predominant colour of every scale. It is from this colour 

 that the natives of that locality call it Bom-mia. (The o like the 

 o in kingdom, the i long like mt in or mean | which is the Tamil for 

 gold tisb, from pon gold and mint fish. The colour is not at all 

 that of the little Chinese gold fish, to which we are accustomed 

 in glass vases, but something between the colour of a brighf new 

 sovereign and that of bright shining copper fresh from the mint, 

 the burnished copper the colour of the outside of each scale, and 

 the tinge of brighter gold flashing through the centre of each scale, 

 and coming out almost all over the gill covers, and showing itself 

 freely in parts of each tin. 



How could any artist do justice to such colouring without the 

 actuals before him. And even with the living fish before him it 

 calls for a good artist to seize truth and represent it, for truth in 

 fish colouring is evanescent. My learned readers will readily re- 

 call to mind bow noble Romans had at their sumptuous feasts 

 live mullet laid upon the table thai they might watch the beauti- 

 fully changing hues of the expiring fish, Have my readers 

 watched a high conditioned Mahseer in like manner '. Let them ; 

 and they will see that the colours change every second after the 

 fish is out of the water. The eye travels from individual s< 

 to gill covers, to the head, the tins and tail, and before it returns 

 to the original spot, a change has come over that spot, and it 

 is perceptible. The next survey is made more rapidly, but still 

 there is a noticeable change. Thus to notice the changes is easy ; 

 but to catch each licet ing shade of colour before it Is gone is very 



