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Show 1868.] DR. F. DAY ON INDIAN FRESHWATER FISHES. 287 mud; and in Somersetshire the people know how to find the holes in which they are by the hoar frost not lying over them as it does elsewhere, and dig them out in heaps*. Dr. Mitchell f also observes that Eels in the winter lie concealed in the mud, and are taken in great numbers by spearing them. Carps bury themselves in the mud, and pass many months without eating, assembled in great numbers side by side J. Yarrell §, quoting from a letter, says that Soles frequent the river Arun nearly as high up as the town of Arundel, and remain in it the whole year, burying themselves in the sand during the cold months. In the West Indies the genus Callichthys is mentioned || as one of which the species are known to bury themselves when the tanks dry up. The Callichthys asper is also occasionally found when digging for wells %. The Crocodile is frequently dug up in a torpid state, in Ceylon, from the mud of dried-up tanks during the hot months ; as food and water fail him he gradually retires into the mud. Snails in the same manner glue down their operculum, and descend into the mud until released by the rains, when they immediately deposit their opa. W h y should not freshwater fish in India aestivate in the same manner ? An Anabas was received by Sir Emerson Tennent from the Moodliar of Matura, which was stated to have been dug out of a dried-up tank, a foot and half below the surface of the earth, where the mud was still moist, although the surface was dry and hard. This gentleman also mentions that Mr. Whiting, the chief civil officer in the western province, informed him that he had accidentally been present twice when the villagers had been engaged in digging up fish. The ground was firm and hard. " As the men flung out lumps of it with a spade they fell to pieces, disclosing fish from nine to twelve inches long, which were full-grown and healthy, and jumped on the bank when exposed to the light"**. Another question which arises is, whether these fish do not aestivate with the ova contained within them in a torpid state, ready to be deposited as soon as the return of moisture arouses the vital powers of the parent fishes. It is well known that the hatching of ova can be retarded by the use of ice, why not also by aestivation from the effects of heat ? In support of this view I may mention that in 1866, when on a march to Kurnool, I witnessed a heavy shower of rain, the first which had occurred in those parts for months, the country being quite dried up from want of water. A few hours subsequently I observed a number of Ampullarice in an open ditch full of water depositing their long stringy ova. They must consequently have become torpid with the ova within them, and immediately on their resuscitation they, being aroused into activity by the occurrence of rain, commenced to increase their species. And * Yarrell's ' British Fishes,' vol. ii. p. 288. t " Fishes of N e w York," Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York. X Cuvier's ' Begne Animal.' § British Fishes, ii. p. 258. || Cuv. & Yal. vol. xv. ^ Cuv. & Val. vol. xv. ** Ceylon, vol. i. p. 220. |