184 ON A NEW GENUS OF FISHES FROM INDIA. 



Art. VI. — On a new Genus of Fishes from India. By William 

 Thompson, Esq., Vice Pres. Natural History Society of Belfast. 



In the course of last spring my friend Dr. Cantor, favourably 

 known to naturalists by his zoological investigations in India, 

 communicated a description and drawing of a new genus of 

 fishes for publication in this Magazine. From the drawing 

 a wood-cut was executed ; but in the mean time the descrip- 

 tion was unfortunately mislaid. When I last saw Dr. Cantor 

 in London, in the month of June, he was soon to re-embark 

 for India ; and having some time before given me a specimen ' 

 of the fish in question, he urged me to draw up an account of 

 it. Considering it better that the discoverer should also be 

 the describer, I delayed, still in the hope that the missing 

 MS. might be discovered, but I am now informed that every 

 search has in vain been made for it. 



Bregmaceros McClellandii, Cantor, MS. 



To the ichthyologist this fish must, in every respect, be 

 highly interesting. It is from the brackish water of the Gan- 

 getic Delta, and ranks under the family Gad idee, which chiefly 

 inhabit the waters of the temperate and colder regions of the 

 globe. In generic form it is quite anomalous, the filament 

 springing from the upper part of the head — whence the name 

 Bregmaceros — giving to the species an unique appearance, 

 whilst the greatly elongated ventrals at once bring to mind 

 the genus Phycis (this being the only generic resemblance) ; 

 but instead of the ventrals consisting each of a single ray, as 

 in Phycis, we find these organs as numerous as in any genus 



* Only two were obtained ; the other was, I believe, sent to the Radcliffe 

 Library, Oxford, along with the specimens and drawings illustrative of Dr. 

 Cantor's ' Spicilegium Serpentium Indicorum,' (published in the Zoologi- 

 cal Proceedings, 1839). 



