NOTES ON THE FRESH-WATER FISHES OF INDIA. 435 
connected with, or owing to, the water at that time being of 
the temperature best fitted for the purpose, most of these lakes 
being fed by mountain streams, frozen in the winter, and full in 
summer from the melting of the snow.” The salmonoid Grayling 
spawns in April or May; but without entering more minutely into 
this question, it is evident that fishes of the same family, genus, 
or even species may spawn at different periods, owing to local or 
climatic causes. There are also other fishes which deposit their 
ova twice yearly, if not more frequently ; these are generally fresh- 
water forms, and not rare, especially in tropical countries, as, for 
example, the Walking-fishes. 
To the question, whether the effect of spawning has any 
deleterious effect upon the parent fishes? two replies may be 
given, as in some cases it renders their flesh unwholesome, while 
in others it does not cause their character as to food to be altered. 
The Shad in the Hast is excellent eating up to the period when 
it has deposited its eggs, subsequent to which it becomes thin, 
flabby, and positively unwholesome; the Salmon is then in a 
similarly unhealthy lean and lank condition, which renders it 
unsuitable for the table. Fresh-water fishes that deposit a smaller 
number of eggs, or perhaps do so more gradually, or twice at least 
during the year, are not so deleteriously affected by breeding, 
this condition being mostly restricted to the anadromous forms. 
The size of the eggs, their colour, and whether deposited in 
ponds or in the sea, are likewise questions to be determined. 
The species which produce the greatest number of eggs are often 
those which live in large communities and spawn once a year. 
Thus, in the Codfish, one of 20 tbs. had 4,872,000, another of 
11} tbs. weight, 1,800,000, while in a third instance, in which the 
roe weighed 74 tbs., there were 7,546,400 eggs. In an Indian 
Shad I found 1,028,645 eggs; a Turbot of 8tbs., 385,200; a Brill 
of 4tbs., 239,775; a Flounder of 14 tb., 1,357,400; a Sole of 1 fb., 
134,466. But other species likewise have numerous eggs. I ob- 
served 410,500 in a Barbel (Barbus sarana) in India; a Tench of 
24. ths. contained, according to Harmer, 383,252. On the other 
hand, some fishes have large eggs, as the Salmonoids, some Sheat- 
fishes, and a few Indian Carps (Bariliws). The editor, when 
reporting some of Herr Malmgren’s exceedingly interesting 
investigations upon Salmonide, in the ‘ Zoological Record’ for 
1864, says of the eggs of members of the Salmon family :—“ The 
