36 INDIAN FISH AND FISHING. 



in fresh waters or in the sea, are all questions requiring 

 attention. The forms which produce the greatest number 

 of eggs are often those which live in large communities and 

 spawn once a year. In an Indian shad I found 1,023,645 

 eggs. But. other fishes have likewise numerous eggs. I 

 observed 410,500 in a barbel {Barbies sarand) ; on the other 

 hand, some have large eggs, as a few of the sheat fishes, 

 and a genus of carps (Barilius). In such as spawn at least 

 twice a year, and likewise protect their young, the number 

 of eggs is less than what generally obtains in other genera ; 

 thus in a walking-fish {Ophiocephalns), I found 4700. 



Respecting the colour of fish eggs, they are very diversi- 

 fied ; in some fresh-water siluroids they are of a light pea- 

 green, as in the scorpion fish, Saccobranchus fossilis. 

 Regarding the localities where fish deposit their eggs, these 

 are exceedingly various, as might be anticipated, owing to 

 some sinking in the water, while others float. The gar-fish 

 (Be/one), and the flying-fish (Exoccetiis), have filaments 

 springing from their eggs for the purpose of attachment to 

 contiguous objects ; others are covered with a glutinous 

 secretion. In fresh waters eggs may remain at the bottom, 

 either covered or uncovered. 



Among the marine siluroids (Ariince), in some forms the 

 male carries about the large eggs in his mouth until 

 hatched ; or it may be that he only removes them from one 

 spot to another to avoid some impending danger. However 

 this may be, I have netted many along the sea-coast with 

 from 10 to 20 eggs in their mouths, and in one example 

 was a young fry just hatched. In none of these large males 

 was there a trace of any food in their stomachs. 



Bloch, at the end of the last century, made many experi- 

 ments as to the feasibility of fish being artificially hatched, 

 and also whether it could be possible to convey the ova 



