FISH OF CEYLON. 



141 



auspices of Mr. Buekland and other eminent pisciculturists, in such 

 quantities as to give us some grounds for hoping that that delicious 

 fish may become again so common in the rivers of England, that 

 it shall no longer be a luxury accessible only to the wealthy, and 

 that farm-labourers may again, as is said to have been formerly 

 the case in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, find it necessary to 

 stipulate, in their engagements with their employers, that they shall 

 not be fed on Salmon on more than two days in the week." 



" This is the only specimen I was able to procure in that stage of 

 development, the time not having then arrived for the general 

 hatching of the eggs ; but an intelligent friend, who is at Caltura 

 at present, has promised to procure me other specimens, which 

 will, I trust, enable me to ascertain a fact which I am inclined to 

 believe, although I am not as yet prepared to assert it positively, 

 namely, that the egg so appended is, in fact, the stomach of the 

 animal in the state of enormous distention, and that, as its contents 

 are absorbed, while the other parts of the fish grow in size, it gra- 

 dually assumes a more natural proportion to the rest of the body.* 

 To this conclusion I am led by observing the system of blood 

 vessels, which is perceptible on the side of the egg opposite the 

 embryo, and which certainly looks as if it was intended to form part 

 of the organization of the future fish." I have since ascertained 

 by the aid of Wm. Ondaatje, Esq., Asst. Col. Surgeon, that the fish 

 which carry the eggs, and subsequently the young fry, for so long 

 a time in their mouths, are all males. 



The name, by which these fish are known to the natives, is An- 

 guluwa. They are regarded by them as all belonging to the same 

 species, nor would an unscientific observer be likely to discover 

 any specific difference between any of the specimens that I have 

 seen; but having sent several specimens to F. Layard, Esq., I 

 received a letter from him, in August last, in which he informed 

 me, that he had submitted the specimens which I sent him, to Dr. 

 Gunther of the British Museum, who had ascertained that they 



* This has since been fully ascertained to be the fact, 



