966 JOUR^AL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETl, Vol. XXVII. 



No. XXXIII.— ON SOME UNUSUAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 

 SOCIETY'S MUSEUM. 



Air or swimming bladder enclosed in osseous capsule. 



Quite recently the Society received from Major C. H. Stockley a parcel con- 

 taining what was described by him as four bony bodies extracted from the 

 dorsal flesh of a fish. Major Stockley writes : " These were embedded in the post 

 median part of the back. My cook who cut them out and brought them to me 

 says they were in no way attached to any bone. There were four of them. I 

 would be much obliged if you would inform me what these bony objects are. I 

 am no ichthyologist but in the course of a long and varied angling experience 

 I have never seen anything corresponding to them." We sent the specimens to 

 Mr. A. E. Hefford, Marine Biologist with the Government of Bombay. Com- 

 menting on them Mr. Heiford replied: "At first I did not recognise the bony sub- 

 stances as anything I had seen or read of before, I find however that certain 

 Indian fresh water fishes have the air bladder (or swimming bladder) more or 

 less completely enclosed in an osseous capsule which is formed by the verte- 

 brae (Gunther, Int. to Study of Fishes, p. 143). The genera in which this char- 

 acter occurs are the whole of the Gobitina and many of the Siluroids. If the 

 fish from which the specimens were obtained belonged to the former subfamily 

 they might have been either Botia geto (Sind, Sheenharo) or Lepido cephalic- 

 thys guntea (Ooriah, Kondatu and Jupkari). Among the Siluridae (Catfish 

 family) it appears that most of the species inhabiting the fresh water of the 

 hiU country (Himalayas) possess a bony covering to the swimming bladder 

 {vide fishes. Vol. I, Fauna of British India series, p. 100)." 



The Cross and the Crescent. 



Among the exhibits in the Society's Museum is a curious crab which 

 was obtained from a local fisherman. The crab when alive was a hand- 

 some specimen measuring six inches across the carapace. It was a brilliant 

 Vermillion with pale buflf markings. The centre of the carapace is marked with 

 a cross. The delineation is wonderfully graphic and distinct. The local 

 Christian fishermen hold this particular crab in great veneration and explain 

 the presence of the cross by the following legend : — St. Francis Xavier, the 

 apostle of the Indies, while preaching on the sea shore accidentally 

 dropped his cross in the water and was in the danger of losing it but 

 for the timely intervention of this obliging erab who rescued it for him 



