222 JOURNAL, BOMB A Y NA TURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



The transfer of the pony carts to the ferry boats, by which the passage of 

 the three rivers opening into the sea between Calicut and Tellicherry is 

 effected, afforded an opportunity of studying the habits of the " calling " or 

 " dbobi " crabs {Gelasimus annulipes), which abound in the mud between tide- 

 marks. These crabs were hard at work with their young families making the 

 burrows which serve as their dwelling places ; the adults bringing up between 

 their feet from the bottom of the burrows in course of construction mud rolled 

 into pellets, which they pushed with their feet to a distance of several inches 

 from the mouth of the burrow ; cleaning the feet from adherent par- 

 ticles of mud, and again descending into the burrow, remaining under ground 

 from ten to twenty seconds. In the work of removing the mud pellets from 

 the mouths of the burrows the adults were zealously assisted by the young. 



In the city of Madras, the " microscopic minority " of Europeans, who are 

 regular fish-eaters, will go on year after year without seeing at the table any 

 other fish, out of the large variety which is sold in the fish bazaar, than seir 

 (several species of Cyhium guttatum) ; pomphret, white, silver, grey,* or black 

 {Stromateus sinensis, S. cinereus and S. niger) ; the so-called " whiting " (Sillago 

 sihama) ; and perhaps an occasional flat-fish {Psettodes erumei), which is a poor 

 substitute for the British sole. During three years in Calcutta I only saw 

 served up hilsa {Glupea ilisha), which, though bony, is excellent when 

 Smoked ; hegti (Lates calcarifer) and the mango-fish or tupsee muchee 

 (Polynemus paradiseus), which comes up the Hooghly river for spawning 

 purposes in very large numbers. Again, at Cochin, out of about forty differ- 

 ent kinds of fish classed as edible by natives, which were being caught at the 

 time of my visit, only four were considered fit to place before me, vis., seir, 

 " whiting," mullet, and sardines. 



* Silver pomphret is the immature, and grey pomphret the adult Stromateus cinereus. 



