HABITS, BREEDING, ETC. 
195 
full, and places that were only dry boulder-strewn 
courses become full-grown streams. The Mahaseer, 
and many other Cyprinoid fish, are said not to deposit 
their spawn all at once like the salmon, but in several 
batches during a period of several months, say from 
May to August. In consequence they are never out 
of season or unfit for food, and may be taken all the 
year round. (In many species the interior is found to 
contain a copious oily secretion when breeding ; this is 
not, I believe, the case with the Mahaseer.) 
The time that they are in the best condition, fattest 
and most active, is at the commencement of the rains 
before they begin spawning, but their flesh will be 
found good and wholesome even in August, while 
by October they have quite recovered themselves 
again. 
Thus, there is no necessity, in order to encourage 
the breeding of the Mahaseer in India, to place any 
restrictions on the capture of fish at certain seasons of 
the year, such as they are obliged to have in salmon- 
fisheries at home. Neither for other kinds of fish 
does it appear necessary, as the great majority, includ- 
ing all the kinds of most importance in an economical 
point of view, inhabit ponds and still waters in the 
plains, where they breed, and do not ascend to deposit 
their spawn into the small hill streams where they 
could be destroyed in a wholesale manner. The pre- 
cautions necessary in this country are of a different 
description. 
Nor yet in the case of the. Mahaseer is it necessary 
o 3 
