422 CETACEA. 



dolphins are generally numerous, the exiilanation being that the fish are attracted 

 hy the rice that falls into the water, they in their turn drawing the dolphins to the 

 place. In the stomach of TFallago attu rice has been frequently found; and, moreover, 

 this fish has the reputation of being occasionally destructive to paddy crops. The 

 remains of beetles and the presence of a bee in the stomach are probably also to be 

 accounted for by their having first been swallowed by fish. 



Gestation. — It appears to give birth usually to only one at a time, although 

 it is stated that it sometimes produces twins : two gravid uteri opened by me 

 in April each contained a single mature fcetus, and in two other instances, of 

 which I have been informed, only one young in each was discovered. Some of 

 my informants record that the period of gestation is from 8 to 9 months, and 

 that the young are born between April and July, also that they are sometimes 

 captiu'ed in the nets of the fishermen chnging to their mothers ; and a correspondent 

 at Dacca observes that they hold on by their mouths to the base of the mother's 

 pectoral fin. I have observed the young following the mother in the months of 

 November and December. 



Native names. — This genus is known by difi^erent names along the Ganges, Indus, 

 and Brahmaputra. Along the first-mentioned river, the term generally ajjplied to it is 

 sus, snsu, or stmsar ; along the Indus it is called, as a rule, biilhan, but the term 

 sunsar appears to be occasionally applied to it ; and along the BrahmajDutra it is 

 known to the Assamese as hihoo or sihoo, and in Cachar and Sylhet as huh, both 

 h's being strongly aspirated. All these terms appear to be imitations of the sound 

 made by the dolphin in respiration. 



Capture and uses. — The JPlatanista is not unfrequently captured in the nets 

 of the fishermen, but such an event is not considered a cast of fortune, for the 

 animal, in its struggles to escape, seriously damages the nets, which are not adapted 

 for entrapping such unwieldy and powerful mammals. A gravid female so caught 

 in the Hughli, and measuring about 8 feet in length, was brought to me alive 

 on the 4th March 1873. For about half an hour after her capture she had lain 

 without shelter under the blazing heat of an almost tropical sun, only, however, 

 to be transferred to the bullock cart in which, without any protection whatever 

 from the scorching rays, she was driven a distance of more than three miles. 

 Notwithstanding this barbarous treatment, she was, as I have said, alive, after 

 having been more than four hours out of her native element, under cu'cumstances 

 most adverse to vitahty. When I first saAv her, she exhibited no movements but 

 those of respiration, and even these were feeble. She respired about every minute 

 or minute and a half. Thinking there was a prospect that I might preserve her 

 alive and so observe her habits, I resolved to let her loose in a large sheet of water, 

 close at hand. On reaching this, however, she appeared so exhausted that 

 I took the precaution, in case I might lose her if she sank, to tie a light rope to her 

 tail. No sooner did she touch the water than she flou.ndered into it, and rolling 

 about for a minute or so seemed to regain her strength and made off feebly 

 for the middle of the tank, twice rising to the surface to breathe. After waitino- 



