982 
The Indian Maurral. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
lhe murral (Opheocephalus striatus) is ubiqui- 
tous, I think, all over India. He lives in every 
jhil and tank in the country, where there are 
reeds or lilies to hide in and anything to eat. 
In the hot weather, when many of the small 
tanks dry up, you have only to get a spade and 
pick, and you will dig him out from beneath 
the surface, for there he will be, perhaps, some 
six feet deep in the sun-dried mud, estivating; 
waiting for the percolating water of a shower 
of rain to tell him that the monsoon has broken 
at last, and it is time to be up and doing—doing 
the juicy young frogs! For he loves young 
He will lie for hours beneath a huge 
ily leaf in the hope of hearing a frog hop on 
to it. In appearance he is, as his name implies, 
snake-headed, having a smallish, flat, triangular 
1ead, containing, however, a very well-furnished 
lining room! 
He is very popular with the natives, as he can 
¢ kept in any dirty pond, and is so tenacious 
of life that he is easily transferred almost any- 
where without water, in moderation of course. 
He will certainly live for hours out of the water. 
believe in a damp cloth he would live for a 
week. He is also very partial to a species of 
cricket found in the mud of the ponds he in- 
habits, and with these frogs and worms I have 
had many a good day with him. Many people 
think him good eating; the natives love him 
Thomas says “stuff him,” but I say give him to 
those who like him, but on no account eat him 
yourself. To me he always tastes as if he had 
forgotten to have a bath since his last sojourn 
in the mud. 
From a sporting point of view he is, perhaps. 
a bit disappointing, being much inclined to sulk 
when hooked and seldom putting his heart into 
lis efforts for freedom. He is very cunning 
though, and will wind your line round anything 
here is in his vicinity, with a wholesouled im- 
vartiality worthy of a better cause. You must 
herefore keep a tight line on him. 
The natives have many ways of catching him, 
usually with nets: sometimes when a pond gets 
ow, with hands and feet, But the commonest 
In my experience is to set a whole series of night 
ines, baited with worms, young frogs or the 
earth crickets. These lines not infrequently 
cover a whole pond, and in the morning out go 
the men in dugouts to unload the lines set ovel 
night. They are marked and supported by lines 
of bamboos stuck in the mud with their tops out 
of the water. A dugout canoe full is a good 
bag. 

o 
rogs, 





One of the best days I have had with murral 
was in the Punjab near Umballa. There is a 
dirty, boggy black mullah some miles out of 
Umballa, along the Kalka road. It is one of 
thousands that may be met with anywhere in the 
plains of the Punjab. They may be recog- 
nized by lines of stunted but green palm 
trees, They always hold murral; if there is 
water, they are in the water: if dry they 
are in the dry bed, and if you want any you 
must fish with a spade. On this occasion I took 
my English orderly, as he had expressed a desire 
to accompany me. He was much interested and 
we both caught plenty of fish. Among other 
original remarks he called the common Indian 
squirrel a “tree-rat.’ That is of course quite 
the best name there could possibly be for it, but 
who but Tommy would hit it off so truly? We 
took some food with us and stayed out for a 
couple of days, having two small tents to sleep 
in, rods, guns and not much else. We camped 
the mullah and fished thereabouts the 
whole time, shooting just enough partridges to 
eat; for where you find these mullahs you also 
find partridges, hares, quail and occasionally pea- 
cocks. On the whole trip we caught thirty-four 
murral. The biggest weighed 61% pounds, and 
we threw back all we did not eat or give the 
servants on the first day. We baited with the 
raw meat of crows which we shot in our camp, 
and we could have caught many more fish if we 
had made a f Instead of this we shot 
beside 
for or ate 
for an hour or two each day to help the cook 
and fished only in the early morning and even- 
ing. These murral would not take a frog, though 

FOREST AND STREAM. 

[Dec. 21, 1907. 

they took worms, but they went for the crow’'s 
meat like anything, On our return we took back 
about twenty pounds weight of fish and some 
partridges for our friends at K, 
In the Berars, too, I found a tank which the 
residents of the station had “stocked” with mur- 
ral, as they said, and it was “preserved.” How- 
ever, they kindly gave me leave to have a day’s 
fishing in it during my stay provided I returned 
all the fish under one pound which I caught. I 
agreed, of course. I went there one morning. and 
caught one fish of two pounds and returned 
thirty-one. This was baiting with the earth- 
cricket. I found a boy at this tank and paid him 
two annas (say four cents) for every twenty 
he got for me. They are beastly things to bait 
with, being squashy, and having soft legs. I 
killed them by pinching them as one used to but- 
terflies, and then ran the hook from underneath 
into the thorax; cast like fly-fishing, and select 
your fish when possible. I spent a long time 
trying to induce a fine old fellow to leave his 
home and come with me, but he would not. He 
lived near a huge lily root, and I could see him 
nosing round the bait, but he would not touch 
it. Cunning old thing. I don’t suppose, though, 
that he grew to that size for nothing. He must 
have weighed eight or nine pounds: 
In the central provinces also every tank holds 
iurral, but the mahseer fishing is so good, and 
1e “fresh water shark’ so plentiful that I sel- 
om bothered about the lesser fish, though I 
aw him everywhere. When on shooting trips 
1 the hot weather I have often seen the Gonds, 
or jungle tribes of these provinces, emptying a 
early dried-up pond, and catching all the murral 
to keep near their homes. They choose the time 
just before the pond becomes dry, so as to catch 
1e murral before they burrow down into the 
mud. They also get a lot of prawns and crabs 
in this way. 
The best way to kill a murral is to crack his 
skull. With all other fish in India, with one 
exception, I always gave them a thump with the 
fist over the bladder. It has the same effect as 
the tin-tack has on the pneumatic tire. The 
exception is the game and sporting little chilwa 
when used for dead bait purposes. A flip on the 
head suffices for him. If you must eat murral 
I recommend his being baked like a potato in 
a jacket of mud in the ashes of a wood fire, or 
boiled and served as “fish Morley,’ at which the 
native cook is such an expert, and don’t forget 
the tabasco. STARLIGHT, 
OM y 


Amateur Tackle Making. 
JupcING from inquiries that have been received 
by Forest anp StreAM, and from information 
given by fishing tackle houses, it is apparent that 
a large number of anglers are taking up fly-tying 
and intend to spend some of their winter even- 
ings in mastering this interesting work and fill- 
ing their fly books with bass and trout flies of 
their own make. The preliminary steps in fly 
making are not difficult, and the tools required 
are very few and simple, but obtaining materials 
is not always easy, as but few houses in the 
United States carry supplies, and these firms are 
not generally known. 
Inquiries among the trade have elicited the 
information that Calcutta bamboo cannot be pur- 
chased in the open market of New York city 
at the present time in sizes suitable for split 
bamboo rod making, and even the small sizes, 
which are used for whole cane rods, are scarce. 
All of the available stock is in the hands of a 
few rod makers, and while some dealers do not 
handle this stock at all, others say they do not 
intend to keep it in the future, and those who 
handle it regularly say a fresh supply will not 
be received until next spring. 
Just why there should be a shortage at this 
time does not appear, but amateurs who are 
building rods for next season’s use have been 
disappointed in their efforts to purchase good 
stock for splitting. 
In the West anglers are becoming more and 
more interested every year in rod making, and 
some of their work that we have examined is 
very creditable, particularly those rods that are 
made of split bamboo with double enamel. 
Fish Culture in New York. 
[A paper read by Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, State Fish Cul- 
turist of New York, at the recent Anglers’ Conference. ] 
(Concluded from page 912.) 
Whitefish: Eggs were carried from Mum- 
ford to New York for exhibition at the fishery 
convention Dec. 29, 1868. The artificial culture 
of whitefish began in the fall of 1868. Fry were 
fed by suspending a piece of “moss” taken from 
a brook in the trough. Some fry began feeding 
at once. 
Seth Green went to Detroit, Nov. 11, 1869. 
to get whitefish eggs. The eggs were delivered 
to all persons desiring them who had facilities 
for hatching them. 
Some 
were hatched at Caledonia in trout 
troughs. The fry were fed the same as trout 
fry. They took small worms from the plants, 
also lobbered milk, liver or pulverized meat, 
etc. The larger whitefish lived on the same 
worms, also on snails, caddis, insects, and were 
extremely fond of their own eggs. 
Some eggs of brook trout, whitefish and lake 
herring were sent to Frank Buckland, London. 
The herring nearly all died in transit. One ot 
the packages went to the French piscicultural 
establishment at Huningue. The whitefish and 
brook trout did well. 
Seth Green described the web-worm, which 
kills fry and larger fish by spinning a web in 
the water. It resembles a measuring worm and 
moves like it; has two legs on the back part 
of the body, generally a half-inch long. 
In 1870 objection was made to the whitefish 
because it has to be netted, and, it was pro- 
posed, therefore, by the commission to raise 
many lake trout and few, if any whitefish. A 
hybrid between the lake trout female and white- 
fish male was produced at Caledonia. 
About 1,000,000 whitefish eggs were collected 
from Detroit River. Some were given to per- 
sons in New York State and about 58,000 were 
hatched by Green and Collins, at Caledonia, on 
wire trays of 16 meshes to the inch. The hatch- 
ing period and feeding habits of the fry are 
described in the report for 1870. 
Otsego bass, a variety of the whitefish, were 
bred at a private establishment at Cooperstown, 
built by funds of some of the citizens. The 
house had a capacity of 500,000 eggs. 
Lake Herring: Eggs were collected and 
hatched like whitefish eggs and in the same 
time. The embryo was three-eighths of an inch 
long. The yolk sac lasted only a few days. The 
fish began to swim and feed as soon as they 
were out of the shell. They were as active at 
one day old as trout at two months. They 
grew faster than whitefish. 
Striped Bass: The first report contains notes 
cn the time of occurrence, the hibernation in 
salt-water ponds, and the spawning season of 
this species, Mr. Green found eggs running 
from them in the Potomac in 1868, 
The report for 1874 states that 500,000 eggs 
were taken by Mr. Green in a southern river 
and were hatched like shad eggs and in the 
shad boxes. They were out of the egg in eight 
Gays and were at once liberated in the river. 
Pike-perch: In May, 1870, Mr. Green tried 
to hatch the eggs at the foot of Lake Ontario. 
He stirred them continually for forty minutes, 
to make them separate, but they stuck to the 
apparatus and could not be removed alive. 
Black Bass: It was observed by Mr. Green, 
as stated in the report for 1868, that the fish 
spawns from April to June, the eggs are at- 
tached together with glutinous semi-transparent 
matter, that they are deposited on rocky, pebbly 
or sandy bottoms, and hatch in about two weeks. 
The work of the commission with this species 
was limited to transferring the fish from the 
canals to living waters. 
Frogs. In the 1872 report is a short chapter 
on the rearing and feeding of frogs. 
The fishculture of New York State is now 
carried on under the direction of the Forest. 
Fish and Game Commission with, headquarters 
at Albany. The commissioner is Hon. James 
S. Whipple, and the deputy commissioner, Hon. 
J. D. Lawrence. 
(Continued on page 906.) 






































































































































