310 SILUEIDJE. 



it has been caught, which causes it to float upside down for some time when placed in 

 a tank. 



Although despised for the table by Europeans, the Schilbe, or Zerrea, as this fish is 

 called by the Egyptian fishermen, who do not always make a distinction between it 

 and the species of the following genus, is fairly abundant in the fish-bazars at Cairo. 

 Mr. Loat supplies the following list of local names: — " Zerrea " (f^), at Cairo, Barrage 

 N. of Cairo, and Assiut; ''shilber nootie" (^y <uli), at Assiut, Beni Souef ; "sharrouk " 

 (cJj^i), at Kafr-el-Zayat ; " zerraygar" (&>jj), sometimes used for this species at 

 Assiut and at Akhmim (this term is also applied at Assuan, with or without the word 

 " shilber " in front, in the Fayum the term " shilber " applies both to this species and 

 the ordinary " shilber" at other places the two species are often included under the 

 name of " shilber ") ; " sir Iyer " (jajJu), between Sheilal and Assuan ; " shilber arable " 

 i&jOjC LLi) at Omdurman; " urn darigis" (^^^d J) on the Blue Nile. 



Heckel * has referred to this species a very conventional representation of a fish 

 in an angling scene on mural paintings near Beni Hassan ; a better figure is to be 

 found in the tomb of Aba, Deir el Gebrawi f . 



* Eussegger's Eeise Egypt, iii. p. 318. 

 t Archseol. Sury. Egypt, xi. & xii. 1902. 



