INDIAN FISH AND FISHING. 53 



turn their attention to the frogs. In fact, the large frogs 

 (Rana tigrina) are evidently considered great delicacies 

 by these animals, for when kept domesticated they even 

 seem to prefer them to fish. In some rivers, as the 

 Ganges and Indus, the porpoise (Platanistd) is a large fish 

 consumer. 



When mentioning animals which compete with man in 

 destroying fishes, there are some families that must not be 

 omitted, although I only propose casually to allude to 

 them. Birds which eat fish are exceedingly numerous, not 

 only in the true swimming and wading forms, but even the 

 Indian pee-wit may be observed in the dry months taking 

 its share of the smaller examples of the finny tribe that are 

 more or less exposed to view in the drying-up pools. 

 Snakes luxuriate in irrigation canals, and revel in luxury at 

 the bases of the larger weirs. In that across the Coleroon, 

 when the water was low, I was plainly able to see these 

 reptiles lying in wait for the fishes attempting to ascend. 

 I should suppose I never saw less than twenty any evening 

 I examined this weir on its down-stream face. Tortoises 

 and turtles are fish-consumers, while most fishes prey upon 

 their weaker neighbours or their eggs. Near Ganjam, 

 a native official informed me how he had ventured out one 

 night to see how murrul — the walking-fishes — were cap- 

 tured. The fisherman was provided with a long flexible 

 bamboo as a rod, and as a bait used a live frog. Hardly 

 had the frog splashed into the water, when a moderately- 

 sized murrul seized and swallowed it. Desirous of ob- 

 serving what would next occur, the fish was left on the 

 hook, as a bait for anything else. Before long, a large 

 water-snake was seen swimming towards it, and soon had 

 the fish enclosed in its capacious jaws, and in this fashion 

 all three were pulled together out of the water. Frogs 



