[Footnote 2:  Glyphisodon Brownriggii, Cuv. and Val. v. 484; Chaetodon Brownriggii, Bennett.  A very small fish about two inches long, called Kaha bartikyha by the natives.  It is distinct from Chaetodon, in which Mr. Bennett placed it.  Numerous species of this genus are scattered throughout the Indian Ocean.  It derives its name from the fine hair-like character of its teeth.  They are found chiefly among coral reefs, and, though eaten, are not much esteemed.  In the French colonies they are called “Chauffe-soleil.”  One species is found on the shores of the New World (G. saxatilis), and it is curious that Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard found this fish at the Cape de Verde Islands in 1827.]

[Footnote 3:  This fish has a sharp round spine on the side of the body near the tail; a formidable weapon, which is generally partially concealed within a scabbard-like incision.  The fish raises or depresses this spine at pleasure.  It is yellow, with several nearly parallel blue stripes on the back and sides; the belly is white, the tail and fins brownish green, edged with blue.

It is found in rocky places; and according to Mr. Bennett, who has figured it in his second plate, it is named Seweya.  It is scarce on the southern coast of Ceylon.]

Fresh-water Fishes.—­Of the fresh-water fish, which inhabit the rivers and tanks, so very little has hitherto been known to naturalists[1], that of nineteen drawings sent home by Major Skinner in 1852, although specimens of well-known genera, Colonel Hamilton Smith pronounced nearly the whole to be new and undescribed species.

[Footnote 1:  In extenuation of the little that is known of the fresh-water fishes of Ceylon, it may be observed that very few of them are used at table by Europeans, and there is therefore no stimulus on the part of the natives to catch them.  The burbot and grey mullet are occasionally eaten, but they taste of mud, and are not in request.]

Of eight of these, which were from the Mahawelli-ganga, and caught in the vicinity of Kandy, five were carps[1], of which two were Leucisci, and one a Mastacemblus, to which Col.  H. Smith has given the name of its discoverer, M.  Skinneri[2], one was an Ophicephalus, and one a Polyacanthus, with no serrae on the gills.  Six were from the Kalany-ganga, close to Colombo, of which two were Helastoma, in shape approaching the Choetodon; two Ophicephali, 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.

[Footnote 1:  Of the fresh-water fishes belonging to the family Cyprinidae, there are about eighteen species from Ceylon in the collection of the British Museum.]