134 Respiration of opkiocephalidce. Chapt. ix. 



that "the gills are kept moist by a structural arrange- 

 "ment that admits of a supply of water being stored in 

 "a cavity above them for the purpose; or according to 

 "experiments by Dr. Day and Mr. Boake in India and 

 "Ceylon, by a labyrinthine cavity over the gills to contain 

 "air, without which they cannot live. In point of fact 

 "they can be- drowned by keeping them from replenishing 

 "this cavity with air, as direct experiments have conclu- 

 sively shown."* 



The murrel will thrive in ponds, and at various alti- 

 tudes, so you can easily stock a pond if you desire. The 

 natives frequently put them into their wells, from which 

 they can take them fresh and fresh as they want them. 



The murrel, unlike most fish, exhibits parental affec- 

 tion towards its young, keeping them together in a shoal, 

 and swimming under them, and attacking anything that 

 comes near them. This it does till they are about three 

 inches long, when it turns on and eats them itself, if they 

 do not disperse. 



Where you find murrel you will generally meet what 

 Colonel Puckle calls the "Lady fish", which is the Varre 

 and Shevarre (plantain and red plantain) of the Tamuls, 

 and similarly Bale in Canarese, but rejoicing ichthyologi- 

 cally in the euphonious title of Callichrous Checkra. But 



* Since penning the above I have been favored with a perusal of the 

 proof sheets of Dr. Day's coming Report on the Fisheries of India, in 

 which I find that the respiration of Indian fishes is dealt with in inter- 

 esting detail; and the reader is also referred therein to the Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society of London, May 14th 1868, page 274, which 

 will be more accessible to the general public than an official report. 



