296 MR. F. DAY ON THE FISHES OF ORISSA. [May 13, 
dish purple, and those at the tip purplish blue, the whole being 
bordered on each side with black ; sides of the neck and chest greyish 
white; abdomen, flanks, and under tail-coverts mottled white, grey, 
and light brown; back of the neck and upper surface bronzy brown ; 
wings vurplish brown; outer tail-feather on each side white, with a 
longitudinal streak of bronzy brown at the tip of the inner web; the 
next on each side the same, but the bronzy mark of greater extent ; 
the central feathers entirely bronze, as in Oxypogon. 
‘Total length 6 inches, bill 1}, wing 33, tail 3, tarsi 7. 
Remark.—This remarkably large and handsome species was dis- 
covered by Mr. H. Whitely at Tinta in Peru, at an elevation of 
11,500 feet. 
3. On the Fishes of Orissa. 
By Surgeon F. Day, F.Z.8., F.L.S.—Part 1. 
Having during the last few months been employed in conducting 
an inquiry into the present state of some of the freshwater fisheries 
on the eastern coast of India, I propose in the following paper giving 
a list of such species of fishes as I obtained in the province of Orissa. 
This portion of Bengal is comprised in one Commissionership, com- 
mencing in the south at the Chilka lake, and terminating at Jella- 
sore in the north. I have also included a few species from the 
Cossye at Midnapore. 
My investigations occupied December 1868 and the following 
month, and were instituted into the condition of every river which 
empties itself into the sea, also into the condition of many tanks, 
and the fisheries at the mouth of the Balasore river. Although I 
was not so fortunate as to obtain many species new to science, I was 
much gratified in procuring several of Hamilton Buchanan’s and 
M‘Clelland’s fish whose existence has been doubted, or which have 
been referred to different species or genera or even renamed. 
Before commencing the list I may remark upon the interesting 
fact that at last I have been a witness to fish being exhumed alive 
from beneath the mud of an Indian tank. On January 18, I was 
“out fishing a tank, when I mentioned to an intelligent native official 
my wish to see fish exhumed from the mud of tanks. He remarked 
that the Labyrinthici, Ophiocephalide, and Rhynchobdellida, be- 
sides the Saccobranchus and Clarias, invariably retire into the mud 
of tanks when the water dries up, but denied that the Carps ever did 
so. Pointing to a neighbouring tank which was almost dry, he ob- 
served that we could at once make the examination. I promised 
a reward to whoever would let me see him exhume fish, and we ad- 
journed to the spot. 
The tank was about one acre in extent, and had not above 4 inches 
depth of water at its centre, whilst its circumference was sufli- 
ciently dried up to walk upon. ‘The soil was a thick, consistent, 
bluish clay, and I refused to allow any one to go nearer the water 
than 30 paces. Six coolies set to work, and in less than five minutes 
