in the Fish Gallery of the Indian Museum. 43 



— have been discovered since the publication of the 

 Fauna of British India. 



Brephostoma (Case 57) is a true deep-sea fish. Lobotes 

 surinamensis (Case 56) has a most curious and suggestive 

 range, being found along the Atlantic coast of Tropical 

 and Temperate America, in the Mediterranean, and 

 in the seas of India and China. 



So far as is known, the Percidce first made their 

 appearance in Tertiary times. They are carnivorous. 



Family II. Squamijnnnes [Case 55]. 



The Squamipinnes are practically Perches with a 

 compressed and greatly elevated body. They owe their 

 name to the fact that the dorsal and anal fins are so 

 thickly covered with scales that the usual boundary 

 beween the body and the fins is lost. 



Most of them haunt coral-reefs and are gorgeously 

 coloured. Like the Perches they are carnivorous. They 

 are not much used as food, though Drepane punctata is 

 fairly good to eat. 



The Indian species are arranged in nine genera. Scato- 

 phagus argus enters estuaries and backwaters, and is 

 even found in freshwater tanks that have long ceased to 

 be connected with any channel leading to the sea : it 

 thus illustrates the way in which the freshwater fauna 

 is continually being augmented from the sea. 



Toxotes, which resembles Scatophagus in habitat, is 

 said to be able to shoot insects from plants overhanging 

 the water, by means of a jet forcibly ejected from its 

 mouth. An even more important interest attaches to 

 Toxotes, because although the species are now confined 

 to Oriental Seas, a fossil species has, according to Zittel, 

 been found in the Tertiary deposits of Monte Bolca near 

 Verona in Northern Italy. 



