Of the Torpedinidre, several genera and specie,s occur, viz. Narcine Indica, Astrape dipterygia, Temera Hardwickii, and Cysteocercus temerm. Dr. Cantor says large individuals of Narcine are at Penang of rare occurrence, but younger, from 3 to 6 inches in length, aro taken at all seasons. In or out of water they may bo handled with impunity. Several species of fishes introduced in a jar filled with sea-water, and containing a large Narcine, showed no consequences from the contact, nor did they appear to avoid the torpedo. The food of this and the other Malayan Torpedi nidm consists of crustacea and testacea.
Teuthis, Linn. All the species of this genus are edible, though supposed by tho Malays of the Stmits to be highly poisonous. They aro not eaten by tbem, but set aside among offal of fish to be used as manure.
Trichopodus trichopterus,. Pallas, like the rest of the family, is capable of sustaining life out of water, particularly if kept in wetted fresh leaves, or occasionally sprinkled with water. At Penang it is numerous in streamlets and ponds, where it is eaten by the poorest classes. The exquisite beauty of the metallic iridescent colours makes these fishes acquisitions in garden tanks. Like Osphromenus olfax, they are very pugnacious tunong themselves. Both at Penang and at Malacca the Osphromenus olfax (Commerson) has been successfully naturalized, though in the former place it is not numeroua, but confined t,o a few ponds. They become Mme, so as to appear on the approach of their feeder, and will riso to flies, beetles, and certain flowem, particularly a large hibiscus. About 1830, several were imported, and placed in a tank in tho Calcutta Botanical Gardens, where they appeared to thrive; and 300 were introduced Into the Madraa Presidency, and aro said to bo doing well. A second species of Trichopodus has been discovered by Dr. Campbell,
superintendent of Darjiling, in tho rivets at the Sikkim passes in the northern frontier of Bengal.
Warm-water Fishes. — In the hot springs of Kannea, in the vicinity of Trincomalee, the water flows at a temperature varying at different seasons from 85° to 115°. In the stream formed by these wells, 3f. Raynaud found and forwarded to Cuvier two fishes which ho took from the water at a time when his thermometer indicated a temperature of 37° Re,aumur, equal to 115° of Fahrenheit. The ono was an apogon, the other an atnbassis ; and to each, from the heat of its habitat, he assigned the specific name of Thermalis. A loach, Cobitis thermalis, and a carp, Nuria thermoicos, were also found in tho hot springs of Kannea, at a heat 40° Cent., 114° Fahrenheit, and a roach, Leuciseus thermalis, when the ther mometer indicated 50° Cent., 122° Fahrenheit. Fish have been taken from a hot spring at Puri when tho thermometer stood at 112° Fahrenheit, and as they belonged to a carnivorous genus, they must have found prey living in the samo high temperature (Journ. Asiatic Soc. of Beng. vi. p. 465). Fishes have been observed in a hot spring at 3fanilla, which raises the thermometer t,o 187°, and in another in Barbary, the usual temperature of which is 172° ; and Humboldt and Bonpland, when travelling in South America, saw fishes thrown up alive from a volcano, in water that raised the temperature to 210°, being two degrees below the boiling point.—Patterson's Zoology, part p. 211 ; Yarrell's Brit. Fish. L p. 16, in 7'ennant's Sk. Nat. Hist. of Ceylon, p. 359 ; Cantor in B. As. S. j.; Low's Penang ; G. Bennett ; Day, Fresh water Kshes ; Bonyuges America ; Tod, Rajasthan; Pallegoix ; Dr. Hancock, in Jam. Ed. Journ. 1828-9 ; Gosse, Rom. Nat. Hist. 1861 ; Bowring's Siam, i. 10 ; Sir John Richardson ; Pennant's Hindustan ; Buist ; Bombay Times.