The Freshwat&r Fished of South Africa. 



505 



head, scarcely reaching to vent. Ventral nearly ?- length of head, 

 reaching to vent. Anal iii 7 ; 3rd spine a little longer than longest 

 dorsal spine. Caudal rounded ; caudal peduncle as long as deep. 

 Scales cycloid, 26^; lateral lines y. 



Colour (of preserved specimen) dark brown above, yellowish 

 beneath, with indistinct dark cross-bars on the body and an inter- 

 rupted dark lateral band from eye to base of caudal, where it ends in 

 a dark spot ; soft dorsal covered with light spots in rows and with a 

 narrow yellowish band or streak just within its outer edge running 

 from its rounded posterior margin forward on to the posterior dorsal 

 spines ; anal with a row of 4 large, ocellar, whitish spots ; caudal 

 with small light and dark spots in transverse rows ; a dark opercular 

 spot, with a dark blotch below it ; an indistinct dark bar from eye to 

 angle of mouth. 



One specimen, 74 mm. in length, from Lialui, Upper Zambesi 

 (Rev. Ellenberger). 



20. *TILAPIA OVALIS, Steindr. 



Chromis ovalis, Sfeindr., Verh. . Zool.-bot. G-es. Wien., xvi, 1866, 

 p. 761. 



Tilapia ovalis, Bouleng., Proc. Zool. Soc., 1899, p. 119, Poiss. Bass. 

 Congo., p. 461 (1901), and Freshw. Fish. Africa, iii, p. 208, fig. 133 

 (1915) ; Pellegr. Mem. Soc. Zool. France, xvi, 1904, p. 319. 





FIG. 131. Tilapia ovalis. 



" Depth of body equal to length of head, 2f to 3 times in total 

 length. Head twice as long as broad, upper profile straight or curved ; 

 snout as long as broad, a little longer than eye, which is 3 (young) 

 to 4 times in length of head, and slightly exceeds interorbital width or 

 praeorbital depth ; mouth .about ^ width of head, extending to below 

 anterior border of eye ; teeth small, in 3 series, 40 to 50 in outer series, 



