40 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [voL. 48 
anal, 24 to 27), and the proportions of all the fins are more or less 
different. The size, also, is never so great as in the giant tarpons, 
for it rarely, if ever, attains to a length of more than five feet. 
Like the tarpon, the Asiatic fish readily accommodates itself to 
fresh water. According to H. S. Thomas (1897), in India “ they 
acclimatize very readily to fresh water, and grow fast,’ and also 
breed, he was told, “in ponds.” The natives, too, “are fond of 
keeping them in ponds.” 
They are more prone to associate in schools or shoals—that is, 
close together like herring—than the tarpon, especially when young. 
Thomas came “ across them coming up an estuary in a shoal, and it 
was like hauling in mackerel; and they run about the same size. 
There was a fish on as fast as ever you could get your line in the 
water. But the fun was very short-lived. It was in mid-stream, and 
they were all past the boat in a very little time.” Thomas took 
them “on a May fly and a Carnatic Carp fly.” In “30 minutes,” 
“on a light trout rod,” he “ took six of three-quarters of a pound 
each, lost four among weeds, and had one fly bitten off. Some of 
them sprang a foot in air, and all fought well.” 
The fame of the tarpon has, in recent years, been reflected on its 
eastern relative and the lesser species has found advocates for 
its pursuit as a game fish. “ Enthusiastic anglers disposed to initi- 
ate” angling for it as for the American fish are referred by T. 
Saville Kent (1897) to the Badminton Magazine for 1895 for in- 
formation. “ There can be no doubt, in the writer’s opinion,” that 
the Australian fish, popularly known as the ox-eye herring, possesses 
“the most conspicuous potentialities for sport,” and “would yield 
equally exciting sport on the same lines.” Unlike its American 
relative, too, there might be the after satisfaction of seeing it on 
the table for, according to Kent, the ox-eye affords “ most excellent 
eating.” In India, it is raised to some extent for the table in tanks. 
Tue Lapy-FisH 
The Albulids are unique in the development of two transverse 
rows of valves in the bulbus anteriosus in advance of the heart, in 
which respect there is an approximation to the Ganoids. The form 
and physiognomy are peculiar but there is more superficial resem- 
blance to a whitefish (Coregonus) than to a herring ; the body is fusi- 
form but the dorsal arch much more curved forwards than the ven- 
tral; the scales are cycloid and brilliantly silvery ; the head bony and 
scaleless, the snout prominent forwards; and the supramaxillaries 
are moderate, composed of only two pieces, and partly retractile 
