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NOTES ON THE FRESH-WATER FISHES OF INDIA. 
By Francis Day, F.L.S. 
Tue fishes inhabiting the fresh waters of India, Burma and 
Ceylon may be divided into those which enter from the sea for 
breeding or for predatory purposes, and those which pass their 
lives more or less without descending to the salt water. 
Of the first class I do not propose giving any detailed description 
beyond a casual remark when the breeding of fish, or the fisheries, 
come under review. 
An exhaustive account of all the strictly fresh-water forms 
would doubtless be interesting scientifically, but hardly so to the 
fisherman or general reader; consequently I shall restrict myself 
to observing that the fisheries above alluded to contain about 
369 species, appertaining to eighty-seven genera. Of the spiny- 
rayed, or Acanthopterygian order, we have nineteen genera, the 
members of which are most numerous in the maritime districts 
and deltas of large rivers, while their numbers decrease as we 
proceed further inland. Few are of much economic importance, 
if we except the Common Goby, Spined Eels (Mastacembelide), the 
Snake-headed Walking-fishes (Ophiocephalide), and the Climbing 
Perch and its allies. Of the Sheat-fish, or scaleless Siluroids, we 
have twenty-six genera; the mouths of these are provided with 
sensitive feelers, which, serving as organs of touch, assist them 
while seeking their prey in turbid waters. All that are of sufficient 
size are esteemed as food, although, owing to their propensity for 
consuming unsavoury substances, their wholesomeness appears at 
times to be questionable. The next three genera, Belone (Gar- 
pike), Cypronodon and Haplochilus, are of but little value; but the 
thirty-five genera of Carps and Roaches are of the greatest possible 
consequence, affording a large amount of food to the population 
of the country. The remaining four genera, consisting of the 
curiously flattened Notopterus and three forms of Eels, are of but 
little mercantile importance. 
How the reproduction of these fishes is carried on becomes a 
most necessary subject for investigation, in briefly considering 
which we might inquire, what migrations they undertake for this 
purpose? whether the parents are monogamous, polygamous, 
or annuals, dying after the reproduction of their species? the 
