336 



FISHES. 



[Chap. X. 



sent home by Major Skinner in 1852, although speci- 

 mens of well-known genera, Colonel Hamilton Smith 

 pronounced nearly the whole to be new and undescribed 

 species. 



Of eight of these, which were from the Mahawelli- 

 ganga, and caught in the vicinity of Kandy, five were 

 carps ; two were Leucisci, and one a Mastaeembelus 

 (M. armatus, Lacep) ; one was an Ophiocephalus, and 

 one a Poly acanthus, with no serrse on the gills. Six 

 were from the Kalanyganga, close to Colombo, of which 

 two were Helostoma, in shape approaching the Chaeto- 

 don; two Ophiocephali, one a Silurus, and one an 

 Anabas, but the gills were without denticulation. 

 From the still water of the lake, close to the walls of 

 Colombo, there were two species of Eleotris, one Silurus 

 with barbels, and. two Malacopterygians, which appear 

 to be Bagri. 



The fresh-water Perches of Europe and of the North 

 of America are represented in Ceylon and India by se- 

 veral genera, which bear to them a great external simi- 

 larity (Lates, Therapon). They have the same habits 

 as their European allies, and their flesh is considered 

 equally wholesome, but they appear to enter salt-water, 

 or at least brackish water, more freely. It is, however, 



them. The burbot and grey mullet esteemed as a fish for table. As it 



are occasionally eaten, but they belongs to a family which possesses 



taste of mud, and are not in re- the faculty, hereafter alluded to, of 



quest. surviving in the damp soil after 



Some years ago the experiment the subsidence of the water in the 



was made, with success, of intro- tanks and rivers, it might with 



ducing into Mauritius the Osjphro- equal advantage be acclimated in 



menus olfax of Java, which has Ceylon. It grows to 20 lbs. weight 



also been taken to French Guiana, and upwards. 

 In both places it is now highly 



