Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon

by Sir James Emerson Tennent

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Since receiving this note from Professor Huxley, the drawings in question have been submitted to Dr. Gray, of the British Museum. That eminent naturalist, after a careful analysis, has favoured me with the following memorandum of the fishes they represent, numerically contrasting them with those of China and Japan, so far as we are acquainted with the ichthyology of those seas:—

CARTILAGINEA.
	Ceylon.	China and Japan.
Squali	12	15
Raiæ	19	20
Sturiones	0	1
OSTINOPTERYGII.
Plectognathi.
tetraodontidæ	10	21
balistidæ	9	19
Lophobranchii.
syngnathidæ	2	2
pegasidæ	0
Ctenobranchii.
lophidæ	1	3
Cyclopodi.
echeneidæ	0	1
cyclopteridæ	0	1
gobidæ	7	35
Percini.
callionymidæ	0	7
uranoscopidæ	0	7
cottidæ	0	13
triglidæ	11	37
polynemidæ	12	3
mullidæ	1	7
perecidæ	26	12
berycidæ	0	5
sillaginidæ	3	1
sciænidæ	19	13
hæmullinidæ	6	12
serranidæ	31	38
theraponidæ	8	20
cirrhitidæ	0	2
mænidiæ	37	25
sparidæ	16	17
acanthuridæ	14	6
chætodontidæ	25	21
fistularidæ	2	3
Periodopharyngi.
mugilidæ	5	7
anabantidæ	6	15
pomacentridæ	10	11
Pharyngognathi.
labridæ	16	35
scomberesocidæ	13
blenniidæ	3	8
Scomberina.
zeidæ	0	2
sphyrænidæ	5	4
scomberidæ	118	62
xiphlidæ	0	1
cepolidæ	0	5
Heterosomata.
platessoideæ	5	22
siluridæ	31	24
cyprinidæ	19	52
scopelinidæ	2	7
salmonidæ	0	1
clupeidæ	43	22
gadidæ	0	2
macruridæ	1	0
Apodes.
anguillidæ	8	12
murænidæ	8	6
sphagebranchidæ	8	10

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NOTE (C).

ON THE BORA-CHUNG, OR "GROUND-FISH" OF BHOOTAN.

See [P. 353].

In Bhootan, at the south-eastern extremity of the Himalayas, a fish is found, the scientific name of which is unknown to me, but it is called by the natives the Bora-chung, and by European residents the "ground-fish of Bhootan." It is described in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1839, by a writer (who had seen it alive), as being about two feet in length, and cylindrical, with a thick body, somewhat shaped like a pike, but rounder, the nose curved upwards, the colour olive-green, with orange stripes, and the head speckled with crimson.[³⁶⁸¹] This fish, according to the native story, is caught not in the rivers in whose vicinity it is found, but "in perfectly dry places in the middle of grassy jungle, sometimes as far as two miles from the banks." Here, on finding a hole four or five inches in diameter, they commence to dig, and continue till they come to water; and presently the bora-chung rises to the surface, sometimes from a depth of nineteen feet. In these extemporised wells these fishes are found always in pairs, and I when brought to the surface they glide rapidly over the ground with a serpentine motion. This account appeared in 1839; but some years later, Mr. Campbell, the Superintendent of Darjeeling, in a communication to the same journal[³⁶⁸²], divested the story of much of its exaggeration, by stating, as the result of personal inquiry in Bhootan, that the bora-chung inhabits the jheels and slow-running streams near the hills, but lives principally on the banks, into which it penetrates from one to five or six feet. The entrance to these retreats leading from the river into the bank is generally a few inches below the surface, so that the fish can return to the water at pleasure. The mode of catching them is by introducing the hand into these holes; and the bora-chungs are found generally two in each chamber, coiled concentrically like snakes. It is not believed that they bore their own burrows, but that they take possession of those made by land-crabs. Mr. Campbell denies that they are more capable than other fish of moving on dry ground. From the particulars given, the bora-chung would appear to be an Ophiocephalus, probably the O. barka described by Buchanan, as inhabiting holes in the banks of rivers tributary to the Ganges.

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Footnote 3231: [(return)]

A Selection of the most Remarkable and Interesting Fishes found on the Coast of Ceylon. By J.W. BENNETT, Esp. London, 1830.