MADRAS GOVERNMENT MUSEUM GUIDE TO THE FISH GALLEoRY BY S.T SATYAMURTI, M.A.,D.SC.,F.Z.S Director of Museums, Government Museum, Madras Published by : The Principal Commissioner of Museums Government Museum Chennai-8 1999 } MADRAS GOVERNMENT MUSEUM GUIDE TO THE FISH GALLERY BY S T SATYAMURTI, M.A., D.Se., F.Z.S Director of Museums, Government Museum, Madras Published by : The Principal Commissioner of Museums Government Museum Chennai-8 1999 First Edition Reprinted :1965 : 1999 © Principal Commissioner of Museums Government Museum, Chennai-8 Price: Rs.6S.00 Printed at Madipakkam Stationery & Register Making Industrial Co-op Society Ltd., Chennai-81 S RANGAMANI, I.A.S Principal Commissioner of Museums Government Museum, Chennai • 600 008 PREFACE The Government Museum, Chennai, had started acquiring zoological specimens from 1856 onwards At present, as the fish gallery consists of South Indian fauna of fishes, a student or a layman gets a complete picture of South Indian fauna offishes Apart from collection, preservation, display arrangement and interpretation of the exhibits in the galleries, a great deal of efforts had been concentrated on various other fields of museum activity, such as the building up of reserve collection forfaunistic surveys for research and reference purposes, the publication of the results of these researches in a valuable series of guide books and bulletins It is believed that this guide book will meet all the needs of students and other visitors and prove to be useful to them ehcnl/a! - f ! 0:; I iJiJY GUIDE TO THE FISH GALLERY INTRODUCTION TllePish Gallery of the Madras Government Musflum is accommodated in a· large; spacious hall on the first 11mI' of the, Zoological Galleries in the real' building,immediately udjoining the' In1"ertebi'atc Gallery and directlY,above the Mammal Gallery It can be rearhei:1 either through the· eentral or, the two side passages leading from the Invertebrate Gallery On entering the Fish Gallery, the huge silecimen of the Whale Shark,suspended from the ceiling in the centre, the two large mural paintings on the wans depicting some of the oceanic fishes in their native haunts and the otber large specimens of sharks, swordfish, et.c., mount.ed on the waIl will arrest the attention of the visitors The specimens exhibited in' the Fish Gallery consist mainly of stuffed" dry.preserved ones, afe.w of which are coloured as fur as possi~]e to resemble the natural colours of the living fishes, a few flpecimens of plaster 01' wax casts and a few origiiml specimens preserved iU spirit as wet mounts in jars in a Yel'tical show.case in the right hand corner at the fart.her end of the Gallery However, since most of the st.u:lIedspecimens as well as thp.spirit~preserved specimens of fishes have lost their na.tul'al colour, bl'ief nords on their revlcolours during their living con