THE FISHES OF MALABAR. 269 



Fins — The anterior dorsal is situated nearer to the pectoral than to the ventral fin, its posterior 

 border is ernarginato, and its upper and posterior angle forms an elongated point : the posterior 

 dorsal commences opposite tho last half of tho base of the anal, which is two-thirds as long as 

 that of the second dorsal. Tho interval between the caudal and anal is double the length of the 

 base of the latter. Caudal low, its superior lobe cut very obliquely at its free extremity, which 

 is slender. 



Scales — Minute, rounded, and with five, four, or three keels. 



Colours — Grey above ; white beneath. 



Habitat — Red Sea, Seas of India, Malaysia, China. 



Genus PRIONODON, Mull and Henle. 



Peionace, Cantor. 



Differs from the Genus Scoliodon by the teeth of either the upper or of both jaws being finely denticulated 

 on either side, oblique or straight, trigonal, or with a broad base and small apex. There is almost inva- 

 riably an extra central tooth in the upper jaw. Oviduct of embryo smooth. 



Prionodon MELANOPTERUS. 



Carcharias melanopterus, Quoy & Gaim. Freycin. Voy. p. 194, pi. 43, f. 1, 2. 

 Prionace melanopterus, Cantor, Catal. p. 400. 



Prionodon melanopterus, Gray, Catal. Brit. Mus. p. 46 ; Dumeril, Icli. gen. i. 

 p. 365. 



Snout short, rounded, in some almost pointed. The space between the eyes longer than that 

 anterior to them. Nostrils nearer the centre of the margin of the snout than they are to the anterior 

 border of the mouth. The fourth and fifth branchial apertures situated above the pectoral fin. 



Teeth — Trigonal, and situated either obliquely or straight ; those in the lower jaw the smallest 

 and narrowest : the teeth in both jaws denticulated on either side in the adidt, but in the immature 

 only those of the upper jaw. There is generally an odd central tooth in the upper jaw. 



Fins — Anterior dorsal situated nearer to the pectoral than to the veDtral, it commences 

 slightly behind the termination of the pectoral, and is much higher than the posterior dorsal, which 

 is slightly in advance of the anal, and extends to opposite its posterior third. Pectoral eniargi- 

 nate. Ventral begins in the last third of the distance between the commencement of the 

 pectoral and of the anal. Caudal nearly one-fourth of the total length, the angle of its lower lobe 

 slightly rounded. 



The male appendages are shorter than the internal margin of the ventral fin. 



Scales — Minute, with from three to seven keels. 



Colours — Bluish grey, fading to whitish beneath. Iris grey, stained darker at its superior 

 portion. 



Habitat — Red Sea, Seas of India, Malaysia, the Moluccas, New Guinea, China, Australia, and 

 the Cape of Good Hope. 



