MALAYAN FISHES. 29 



These fishes appear to be monogamous, some breeding in 

 grasy swamps or the edges of tanks and others in holes in the 

 river banks. 



They construct nests amongtst the water-weeds where the 

 ova are deposited. When very young the fry of all species, Aruan, 

 Toman, Bujok, etc., keep with, and are defended by, their parents, 

 but as soon as they are sufficiently strong to capture prey for them- 

 selves, they are driven away to seek their own subsistance : those 

 which are too ob.^tiuate to leave being eaten by their progenitors. 



Tlie Malays have a saying Bagai toman makan anak, " Like 

 the Toman fish which eats its own young," which is applied to 

 persons in high places who misuse their powers, oppressing those 

 whom they should protect. 



The Aruan and Toman will readily take a bait, especially a 

 frog, and are said to rise to the salmon fiy. The largest run well 

 over 3 feet in length. 



They are caught in great quantities in the Ivrian irrigation 

 reservoir at Bukit Merah and sent alive in tubs all over the F. M. S'. 



NANNYGAI. 



(BEEYCIDAE.) 



The Sebekah karang (Myripristis murdjan) is a small fish 

 of no particular economic importance. 



The Bertcidae, of which there are about 70 species, live, most- 

 ly at great depths, in the seas all over the world. 



The '' Nannygai " of Australia, which belongs to this family, 

 is highly esteemed on account of its delicate flavour and firm white 

 flesh. Eoughley writes, 



'■' Until recently the supply of ' ISTannygai ' to the market 

 has been an intermittent one, occasional specimens only being 

 found there. 



" The trawlers have now quite altered this and large 

 quantities are being received from them daily, with the reault 

 that it is one of the commonest fish seen in the market. 



" Hundreds of people visiting there in search of trawled 

 fish are no^v seeing the ' Jv'annygai ' for the first time." 



I suggest that the capture of the " Nannygai " and other, 

 hitherto unrecorded, species of good edible deep water fish, by 

 means of a commercial steam trawler, is well within the region of 

 possibility. We have, as a perusal of this book will shew, many fish 

 in our waters which range as far as Australia but no engines or 

 methods of capture are utilized in our waters which take bottom 

 feeding fishes in depths of 50 fathoms. 



