FAMILY, I— PERCID^. 19 



Habih-d.—llAahai- to 3 feet in lengtli. I have not seen this species that I am aware of, unless it is a 

 Lutianus. It may probably be Russell's Ban goo. 



1 5. Serranus Malabaricus, Plate IV, fig. 2. 



Eolocentnis Malaharicus, Bl. Schn. p. 319, pi. 63. 



Holocentrus iKintlieriims, Lacep. Poiss. iii, t. 27, f. 3 andiv, pp. 389 and 392. 



Perca hontoo and P. madinawa hontoo, Russell, Fish. Vizag. ii, pp. 20, 21, pi. 12/ and 128. 



Bola ? coioides, Ham. Buch. Fish. Ganges, pp. 82, 369. ^ , . , ^o -r. 



Serranus hontoo, Cuv. and Val. ii, pp. 3Si, -si, p. 523 ; Cantor, Catal. p. 11 ; Gunther, Catal. i, p. 138 ; Day, 



Fish. Malabar, p. 3. „ .. ^ „.. ,, r^ . , ■ m- 



Serranus suillus, Cuv. and Val. ii, p. 33.5; Bleeker, Verh. Bat. Gen. xxu, p. 9; Gunther, Catal. i, p. 12/ ; 



Playfair, Fish. Zanz. p. 5. 



Serra7ii(.s macidosus et panthermus, CvLv. RndYa\.u, -pp. .j3-2 and SSS. 



Serramis crapao, Cuv. and Val. iii, p. 494; Rich. An. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1842, ix, p. 25; Bleeker, Verh. 

 Bat. Gen. xxii, Perc. p. 37 ; Giinther, Catal. i, p. 137. 



Serranus diacopeformis, Benn. Life Raffles, Fish. Sumatra, p. 68b. 



Serranus nebidosus et scliilpan. Richards. Ich. China, pp. 231, 232. 



Serranus coioides. Cantor, Catal. p. 11. 



Epinephelus crapao, Bleeker, Atl. Ich. Perc. t. viii,^f 1. 



Epinephelus pantherhius, Bleeker, Epinephelini, p. 78. 



Funni-ealawah, Tam. : Bontoo, Tel. : Bool, Chittagong : Nga-towktoo, Arrak. : KijoulUheyga-kakadit, Burm. : 

 Edb-na-dah and 0-ro-tam-dah, Andamanese. 



Variety, S. hontoo, Madinawah hontoo, Tel. : Bow-je-dah, Andam. 



B. vii, D. \i:\f, P. 19, V. 1/5, A. ^^.^, C. 15, L. 1. 90, L. r. VV- L. tr. 19/50, Ca3C. pyl. 50-60. 



Length of head 3i to Sf, of caudal 1/5 to 1/6, height of body 2/7 to 1/4 of the total length. Eijes— 

 diameter 1/5 to 1/6 of length of head, 1 to U diameters from the end of snout, and the same apart. Interorbital 

 space fiat : the prffimaxillary reaching to opp'osite the front edges of the orbit. The maxilla extends to below 

 the posterior edges of the orbit, or even behind it in large specimens. Vertical limb of preopercle slightly 

 emarginate, finely serrated, becoming more coarsely so at its rather square angle, where there exist from four to 

 seven coarse teeth, its lower margin entire, as are also the sub- and inter-opercles, occasionaUy there are two or 

 tkree serrations on the inter-opercle. Opercle with three spines, the central one being the longest. The fiy has 

 no spine at the angle of the preopercle. Teeth— one or two canines in either jaw, those m the upper usually the 

 lono-er • the outer row of teeth in the upper jaw, and the ianer in the lower, are the largest. i^/«s— the dorsal 

 spiSes from the third are of about the same height, and equal to one-half the length of the post-orbital portion 

 of the head, but not so high as the rays : the pectoral is longer than the ventral, and about equal the post-orbital 

 portion of the head indength, soft portions of dorsal and anal fins rounded : the second anal spine in most estuary 

 specimens equal the length of the third, but in marine ones it is often slightly shorter : caudal rounded. Scales- 

 ctenoid, and in about 15 rows between the 6th dorsal spine and the lateral line. Cecal pylori— bom 50 to 60, 

 but two or more open into a single basal tube. Co?oi«-«— brownish, fading to grey or dirty wlute on the abdomen : 

 the whole of the fish, even over to the branchiostegal rays covered with bright yellow or orange spots, which often 

 become brown after death : three large blotches on the inter-opercle appear to be present m all varieties of this 

 fish In the S. Malabaricus Bloch, some brown spots are often dui-iug life intermingled with the orange ones, 

 and it is vertically banded usually as follows ; one passes from the first four dorsal spines to the pectoral fin : 

 another from between the second and ninth to the abdomen : two more descend fi-om the soft dorsal fin, and a 

 fifth encircles the free portion of the tail : pectoral reddish spotted with yellow, sometimes the caudal, pectoral 

 and ventral fins are unspotted but marked with darker shades, or the bands are contmued on to them. This 

 variety is the commonest, mostly marine, and the bands are unusually well marked m the young. In the variety 

 S. hontoo, the bands when present bifurcate inferiorly, and the spots are all black ; this is a marme and the 

 rarest form, never appearmg to attain to a large size. In the variety S. coioides, H. B. = S. suillm, C. V. 

 the bands are absent, or else indistinctly visible ; this is mostly taken in estuaries or large rivers, as the Hooghly 



at Calcutta. • j. >> i? i i. lo'? 



Russell observed that the plate 128 (S. hontoo) may perhaps "be merely a variety ot plate U/ 

 (S coioides) Hamilton Buchanan, p. 82, remarked of his coioides, " this fish agrees so well with the description 

 of 'the medinawa hontoo of Dr. Russell (Indian Fishes, vol. ii, no. 128) that I do not think them difierent 

 species," p. 82. Cuvier considered Russell's species distinct : Playfair, " Fishes of Zanzibar," doubted li they 



might not be identical. , « ^ ^ • i ii r • -4.1 



Russell records one taken at Vizagapatam in January 178b, which measured 7 feet m length, 5 m girtii, 

 and weio-hed upwards of three hundred pounds. Amongst Sir Walter Elliot's drawings is a figure of the banded 

 variety S. Malaharicus, marked Serranus suillus and Kullawaee: afoot and a half in length is given as the size of 



The fish figured, pi. iv, fig. 2, is the variety coioides, the specimen being about 21 inches in length, and 



taken at Calcutta. ,,.,-,-, i i • i, ^ .i ■ u 



In one specimen of the variety S. hontoo 8^ inches long, not only has it 12 dorsal spmes, but the sixth 



has also two separate spinate terminations. 



Habitat.— Seas, of India to the Malay Archipelago, China, and beyond, attainmg to a very large size. 



D 2 



