35 8 Miscellaneous. CHAP. xxv. 



Kingfishers do not eat fish and fry only. I have seen them doing 

 good work in killing tadpoles, and when the rivers are discoloured 

 with monsoon floods, in which they can see nothing, they desert the 

 rivers and go miles inland, feeding on young frogs and other things. 



When the Bassia, the tree called in Tamil ilippe, and in Telugu 

 and Canarese ippe, sheds its flowers on the water I have seen the 

 Barbus Jerdoni and the B. chrysopoma, and I suspect others, feeding on 

 it with avidity. 



Riding at a foot's pace after a guide on foot is tedious. If you press 

 him you only lose time in the end by his getting out of breath, and 

 it is cruel. Send a man that understands it with him overnight, with 

 instructions to lay a paper scent. With posted horses G. and I did 

 thirty miles across unknown country in this way, country in which it 

 was easy to lose one's way, and got in comfortably for breakfast. 

 With guides at a foot's pace it would have taken us all day. 



When white ants are on the water they are said to be like the 

 May fly, in that the fish will look at nothing else. I can well believe 

 it. But their flight is very short lived. 



I tried white elephant's hair as a substitute for gut. When dry it 

 seemed as tough as a wire, but when well soaked it became very elastic, 

 and broke at a tension of 6 Ibs. 



Size in a river affects both the feeding and the lifetime of fish. 

 Regarding the feeding we may say that size in a river ordinarily 

 implies a greater quantity and a greater variety of food ; and in India, 

 where rivers are so liable to suffer from drought and from the drain 

 of irrigation, it implies also greater constancy of food supply. Each 

 one of these three items of quantity, quality, constancy in the food 

 supply has a marked influence on the growth of fish ; all three com- 

 bined have necessarily a much greater effect. As to quantity it is 

 marvellous what an amount a fish will eat, and the rapidity of its 

 digestion is extraordinary. You may see trout quite poor in condition 

 after a long drought, and a single flood in the afternoon leaves them 

 markedly improved in condition the very next day. Their food sticks 

 to their ribs in no time. It is a good thing it is not the same with you 

 and me. It is noticeable in fish in an aquarium how, immediately 

 after feeding, they commence to extrude faecal matter, from whence I 

 argue that peristaltic movements have commenced all down the line 

 at once. And then the quantity fish take. I have caught trout full 



