ark is also
sent;--it is said to be there converted into shagreen.

_Saw Fish._--The huge saw fish, the _Pristis antiquorum_[1], infests the
eastern coast of the island[2], where it attains a length of from twelve
to fifteen feet, including the powerful weapon from which its name is
derived.

[Footnote 1: Two other species are found in the Ceylon waters, _P.
cuspidatus_ and _P. pectinatus_.]

[Footnote 2: ELIAN mentions, amongst the extraordinary marine animals
found in the seas around Ceylon, a fish _with feet instead of fins;
[Greek: poias ge men chelas e pteri gia.]_--Lib xvi. c. 18. Does not
this drawing of a species of Chironectes, captured near Colombo, justify
his description?

[Illustration: CHIRONECTES]]

But the most striking to the eye of a stranger are those fishes whose
brilliancy of colouring has won for them the wonder even of the listless
Singhalese. Some, like the Red Sea Perch (_Helocentrus ruber_, Bennett)
and the Great Fire Fish[1], are of the deepest scarlet and flame colour;
in others purple predominates, as in the _Serranus flavo-caeruleus_; in
others yellow, as in the _Chaeetodon Brownriggii_[2], and _Acanthurus
vittatus_, Bennett[3], and numbers, from the lustrous green of their
scales, have obtained from the natives the appropriate name of
_Giraway_, or _parrots_, of which one, the _Sparus Hardwickii_ of
Bennett, is called the "Flower Parrot," from its exquisite colouring,
being barred with irregular bands of blue, crimson, and purple, green,
yellow, and grey, and crossed by perpendicular stripes of black.

[Footnote 1: _Pterois muricata_, Cuv. and Val. iv. 363. _Scorpaena
miles_, Bennett; named, by the Singhalese, "_Maha-rata-gini_," the Great
Red Fire, a very brilliant red species spotted with black. It is very
voracious, and is regarded on some parts of the coast as edible, while
on others it is rejected. Mr. Bennett has given a drawing of this
species, (pl. 9), so well marked by the armature of the head. The French
naturalists regard this figure as being only a highly-coloured variety
of their species "dont l'eclat est occasionne par la saison de l'amour."
It is found in the Red Sea and Bourbon and Penang. Dr. CANTOR calls it
_Pterois miles_, and reports that it preys upon small crustaceae.--_Cat.
Malayan Fishes_, p. 44.]

[Footnote 2: _Glyphisodon Brownriggii_, Cuv. and Val. v. 484; _Chaetodon
Brownriggii_, Bennett. A very small fish about two inches long, called
_Kaha bartikyha_