[CEYLON PEARL OYSTER FISHERIES 1904 SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT, No. XV.] 



REPORT 



ON THE 



MARINE FISHES 



COLLECTED BY 



Professor HERDMAN, at CEYLON, in 1902. 



BY 

 J AS. JOHNSTONE, B.Sc, 



ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL. 



[With TWO PLATES and TWO FIGURES in the Text.] 



The collection of fishes made by Professor Herdman in the Gulf of Manaar and else- 

 where around Ceylon contains 117 species belonging to 73 genera. One species, 

 Salarias furcatus, is now described for the first time. Several other specimens 

 obtained are also of much interest. A series of stages, including the adult female, of 

 Alcock's Psettylis ocellata were obtained, and, since the original description of this 

 species was based on immature specimens, I have been enabled to revise both generic 

 and specific diagnoses. Solea oculus, Alcock, of which only two specimens have 

 hitherto been obtained, has also been taken by Professor Herdman. An undescribed 

 immature form, belonging apparently to the genus Scatophagus, which has previously 

 been found off the coast of Patanj, in the Malay Peninsula, was also collected. 



Day (5), in his revision of Indian Fishes, records about 1010 marine fishes from 

 Indian seas, and Alcock (4) subsequently gave an additional list of 202 species, mostly 

 deep-sea forms, which were not recorded by Day. The present collection, therefore, 

 contains about one-tenth of the species known to inhabit the Indian area. The Gulf 

 of Manaar, however, has a more abundant piscine fauna than the present list 

 represents. E. Thurston (10), in a survey of the pearl banks in this area, collected 

 107 fishes and, owing apparently to the different method of collection adopted, only 

 16 species are common to the two lists. The total number of fishes obtained from the 

 Gulf of Manaar is therefore 202. 



Twelve species in the present collection are now recorded from Indian shores for the 

 first time. These are : 



2 D 



