406 JOURNAL BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXII. 



have the same or even similar habits. And there is, therefore, a wide field 

 for further observation by sportsmen and naturalists, for three species occur 

 in Africa, and the others " in Southern and Eastern Asia and the islands to 

 the southward. In the Philippine Islands are found at least 5 species. "' 

 There are six species in India which grow to three feet and over and are 

 known as " Murral " among Europeans, and '' Saul" in the vernacular of 

 Northern India : with three smaller species called Black Caboose in English 

 and Dhok or Dhaula in Hindustani. The locus classicus for the habits of the 

 fish from the angler's jwint of view is Chapter XVI of Thomas's " Hod in 

 India. " Generally speaking, the fish is to our sportsmen the oriental 

 counterpart of the pike and is fished for in the same way and with the 

 same tackle.'' They "inhale the atmosphere direct."' They will in 

 fact suffocate if they are prevented from rising to the surface to take in 

 oxygen. Their capacity for surviving is almost unlimited. They can bury 

 themselves in the mud of a rain fed tank, eestivate through the longest 

 drought when the tank dries ap and come up smiling and hungry with the 

 burst of the monsoon. " In China they are often carried alive in tubs or 

 pails of water, and slices are cut for sale as wanted, the fish selling 

 dear while it retains life, while what remains after death is considered 

 as of little value."* These unfortunate fish, be it noted, are disembow- 

 elled before this dreadful process begins ! Finally they can travel consider- 

 able distances on land in the rains when both the ground and air are moist, 

 using their pectoral and caudal fins alternately in a manner which renders 

 the progression a true "crawl;" and their migrations from pond to 

 pond — generally at night — are matters of common knowledge throughout 

 India. 



Their flesh is really excellent : and they can be served without bones. 

 And it is thus evident that the " suakeheads " have two characteristics 

 valuable from the fish culturist's point of view, edibility and extreme hardi- 

 hood. Accordingly in the days before British rule, when fish culture was 

 ( alas !) a less neglected science than it is now, " murral " were freely 

 used to stock ponds of all kinds. Probably our Mussalman predecessors 

 knew a good deal about their spawning habits. But until 1909 we knew 

 very little indeed. Day (1883) recorded that one species O. striatus made 

 a nest and that the male of the species guarded the young. But of the 

 actual form of the nest — oviposition — and development to the fry stage we 

 had no written account until Dr. Willey published his paper in Spolia 

 Zeylanica. And even now — the warning can hardly be repeated too 

 often — our knowledge is confined to one species. 



Like a wise man Dr. Willey went to a local fisherman for his first 

 information: an old " poacher " (he deserves the name) who lived by the 

 manufacture of the basket traps in which murral are caught on their nests 

 in Ceylon and in the Punjab. This man showed him five nests on the first 

 day of investigation. Apparently the nests were built near the margin of 

 the Minneri tank and were constructed with the parent fish's tail. The 

 nest is unfortunately not figured in the journal. But it consists of a more 

 or less circular patch cleared of weeds at the water's edge : this is filled 

 with a mass of eggs which, unlike the eggs of most fresh water fish, Jioat 

 on the surface. "These Dr. Willey found to be " characteristic translucent 

 golden yellow and amber coloured eggs some newly hatched, spread 

 like a sheet flush with the surface in a subcircular area behind a tussock 



^ Parental Care among Fresh Water Fishes, by Dr. TheoGore Gill. Annual 



Report. Smithsonian Inst. 1905. Washington. 1906, page 490. 

 "^ Thomas's Eod in India, page 227. 

 " Thomas, op. cit. page 233. 

 * Gill, op. cit. page 192. 



