Among the coral reefs of the Andaman Islands I found the little _Chromis lepisurus_ abundant. As soon as the water was splashed they appeared to retire for safety to the branching coral, where no large fish could follow them; so frightened did they become that on an Andamanese diving from the side of the boat, they at once sought shelter in the coral, in which they remained until it was removed from the sea. In Burma I observed, in 1869, that when weirs are not allowed to stretch across the rivers (which would impede navigation), the open side as far as the bank is studded with reeds; these, as the water passes over them, cause vibration, and occasion a curious sound alarming the fishes, which, crossing to the weired side of the river, become captured. Hooker, alluding to gulls, terns, wild geese, and pelicans in the Ganges Valley, observes: "These birds congregate by the sides of pools and beat the water with violence, so as to scare the fish, which then become an easy prey--a fact which was, I believe, first indicated by Pallas during his residence on the banks of the Caspian Sea."[15] Fishes, under the influence of terror, dash about with their fins expanded, and often run into places which must destroy them. Thus droves and droves of sardines in the east, impelled by the terror of pursuing sharks, bonitos, and other voracious fishes, frequently throw themselves on the shores in enormous quantities. Friar Odoric, who visited Ceylon about 1320, says: "There are fishes in those seas which come swimming towards the said country in such abundance, that for a great distance into the sea nothing can be seen but the backs of fishes, which, casting themselves on the shore, do suffer men for the space of three days to come, and to take as many of them as they please, and then they return again into the sea."[16]