130 THE FISHES OF MALABAR. 



No pseudobranchias. 



Grows to six inches in length. Common in the rivers and paddy fields. It is a voracious fish, 

 •preys on small cyprinidas, and is very tenacious of life. 

 Habitat — Fresh waters of India and Malaysia. 



Nandus Malabaricus. Plate VIII. 

 Catopra Malabarica, Gilnther* Annals Nat. Hist. 1864, p. 375; Day, Proc. 

 Zool. Society, 1865, p. 30. 



B. vi. I). |i. P. 15. V. 1 A. f. C. 16. L. 1. 25. L. tr. f. Vert. if. 



Length of head about \, of pectoral -£-, of caudal \, of base of dorsal \, of base of anal \ of 

 total length. Height of head \, of body J, of hard dorsal \, of soft dorsal }, of ventral \, of anal 

 ) of total length. 



Ey es — Diameter f length of head, 1 diameter from end of snout, nearly 1 diameter apart. 



Body compressed ; mouth situated below the central line of the body ; there is a considerable 

 rise to the dorsal fin. 



Jaws equal : intermaxillaries protractile, their posterior process being two-thirds the length 

 of the diameter of the orbit : upper lip rather fleshy. The superior maxilla extends to slightly 

 behind the anterior margin of the orbit. Upper surface of eye nearly close to profile. Preopercle, 

 posterior limb almost vertical, roughened, angle rounded and finely serrated, inferior limb hori- 

 zontal, entire, and little more than half the length of posterior limb. Sub- and interopercles with 

 a few very fine serratures at their approximating extremities. Opercle with two rather strong flat 

 spines, and ending in a membraneous point. Preorbital entire. Nostrils rather wide apart, pos- 

 terior the largest. Pseudobranchias present. Branchiostegal rays covered : gills three and a 



half. 



Teeth — Several rows of fine teeth in the intermaxillaries, with an external larger band of 

 curved ones. In the mandibular several rows of nearly equal sized vilbform ones, and four large 

 curved teeth external to them at the symphysis. On the front of the vomer is a transverse oval 

 patch of villiform ones, divided by a short interspace from a narrow band of the same description 

 which exists on the palatine bones. Pterygoid bones, and root of the tongue covered by rounded 

 teeth, which posteriorly become roughened and even pointed. Sharp villiform teeth on the pharyn- 

 geal bones. 



Fins — Origins of pectoral and dorsal on a line, ventral slightly behind : anal arises opposite 

 commencement of soft dorsal. Spinous dorsal can be laid flat on the back, in a groove, 

 its base occupies nearly four-fifths of that of the entire fin. Dorsal spines rather strong, 

 shorter than the rays, the third the longest, the remainder nearly the same. Interspinous 



* Br. Giint her affixed the name of " Catopra Malabarica" to a specimen of this fish which I had given 

 to the British Museum. In deference to the expressed opinion of that excellent ichthyologist, I adopted 

 his designation in my " Fishes of Cochin :" but its preorbital being entire, &c, I, at the suggestion of the 

 late Sir John Bichardson, forwarded a specimen to Br. Bleeker for his opinion, who pronounced it to be 

 undoubtedly a " Nandus" as at present constituted, but which will probably at a future date have to be 

 placed in a distinct, but nearly allied genus. Having been furnished by the Bev. H. Baker with four more 

 specimens from India, I have been enabled to obtain a skeleton, which fully confirms the views entertained 

 by Br. Bleeker. Should more species be discovered, I would suggest the generic term of Baranandus, differing 

 from the Nandus by its mouth being moderately protrusible, by its having two opercular spines, pseudo- 

 branchia?, &c. 



