210 Fishing in Estuaries. Chapt. xvn. 



It is now time I made the usual descriptive quotation from Dr. 

 Pay's " Fishes of India," and bid good-bye 



Sab class. Teleostei. 



Order. Acanthoptertgii. 



Family Polvxemidj; (including eight species). 



Polynemns tetradactyhis. B. vii, D. 8 t^tti P. 17 + iv, V. 1/5, 

 A - Tf:fr. C. 17, L. 1. 75-85, L. tr. 8/14. Ome. pyl. many. Habitat: 

 Seas of Indiato the Malay Archipelago and China. Attaining 6 feet 

 and upwards in length. It is excellent eating. This species appears to 

 ascend higher up the river than any others, and the young are 

 numerous in the Hoogly, at Calcutta. Ham. Buchanan observes : " I 

 " have been assured by a credible native that he saw one which was a 

 " load for six men, and which certainly, therefore, exceeded in weight 

 " 320 lbs. avoirdupois." (Fish Ganges, p. 225). 



P. Indians. B. vii, D. 8 T ^. Tit P 15 + v, V. 1/5, A r ?:? ¥ , C. 17, 

 L. 1. 70-75, L. tr. 7/13, Vert. 5/19. Ccse. pyl. many. Habitat: Seas of 

 Indiato the Malay Archipelago and Australia. It attains 4 feet in 

 length, hut it is rarely above "Jo lbs. weight. 



The Cock-up, ob Naif. Fish. 



Lates calcarifer is said by Dr. Day to be the Cock-up of 

 Europeans, though how it got the name I know not. It is also 

 called the Nair fish by Europeans. The Canarese called it KvZanji, 

 when small, Madam when large ; just as we use the terms Jack and 

 Pike. The Malayalim name Colonel Osborn writes is " Coollon, the 

 " final n being pronounced as the n in the French place Dijon." 

 For other vernacular names, Dr. Pay shall be quoted hereafter. 



I have seen them weighing 30 lbs. on terra jinn", and Colonel 

 Osborn says lie has seen them over 50 lbs. or 60 lbs. in weight. 

 They are a sea fish frequenting the estuaries, and are found in 

 company with the Bamln. Their mouth is similarly armed with 

 numerous minute tile-like (villiform) teeth; their colour is silvery, 

 with a bronzy sheen cm the hack. Plate XXI will aid recognition. 

 The young have not the humped back seen in the adult fish. 



1 have done not a little business with these fish myself, but 



Colonel (isliorn seems to have had more opportunities of watching 

 them, so I will quote his kindly routributed paper.: — 



" When the S.W. monsoon is at its height, and the rivers are 

 " very much discoloured by the floods from the western mountains 



