FAMILY, I— SILUEID^. 483 



tlie inner ones. Fins — dorsal spine serrated on both edges, and equal to 2/5 of tlie length of the head, pectoi-al 

 spine similar and equal to 1/3 of the length of the head. Colours — brown, the vertical fins edged with black. 



Flotosus limhafu.s, C. V. xv, p. 422 ; Giinther, Catal. v, p. 25, is said to differ in its 2 D + C + A^224 

 rays : its head and also its nasal barbels being a little shorter. 



Bleeker observes that the Malays at Batavia believe that the flesh of this iish has emnienagogue 

 properties. 



Habitat. — Estuaries of India and Burma to the Malay Ai-chipelago. It attains 3 feet and upwards 

 in length. 



2. Plotosus Arab, Plate CXII, fig. 4. 



Silurus Arab, Forsk. Desc. Anim. xvi. No. 36. 



Flaiystacus anguiUaris, Bloch. viii, p. 61, t. 373, f. 1 ; Bl. Schn. p. 373, t. 74 ; Shaw, Zool. v, p. 30, 

 t. 99 ; Russell, Fish. Vizag. ii, p. 51 and Ingelee, f. 166. 



Plotosus anguillaris, Lacep. v, p. 130, pi. 3, f. 2 ; Cuv. Reg. Anim. ; Riippell, N. W. Fische, p. 76 ; 

 Cantor, Mai. Fish. p. 264 ; Peters, in Wiegm. Arch, sxi, p. 267 ; Bleeker, Silur. j). 314 ; Giinther, Catal. v, 

 p. 24. 



Plotosus ikapor, Less. Voy. Coq. Zool. ii, pi. 31, f. 3. 



Plotosus nMrginatus, Bennett, Life of Sir S. Raffles, p. 691. 



Plotosus lineaius, Cuv. and Val. xv, p. 412; Rich. Ich. China, p. 286; Schleg. Fauna Japon. Poiss. 

 p. 228, pi. 104, f. 3 ; Bleeker, Silur. Batav. pp. 4, 17, 57. 



Plotosus castaneus, Cuv. and Val. xv, p. 421. 



Plotosus vittatus, Swainson, Fishes, ii, p. 307. 



Clarias anguiUaris, Swainson, Fishes, ii, p. 307. 



Plotosus castaneoides, Bleeker, Nat. Tyds. Ned. Ind. ii, p. 490. 



Plotosus Arab, Bleeker, Atl. Ich. Silur. p. 98, t. 95, f. 2 ; Kner. Novara Fische, p. 300 ; Day, Fishes of 

 Malabar, p. 195 ; Klunz. Verh. z. b. Ges. Wien, 1871, p. 688. 



Moorghee, Mai. 



B. xi, D. ^1^, 2 D + C + A 169-190, P. 1/11, V. 12, Vert. 12/35. 



Length of head 5 to 5^, height of body 7 to 8 in the total length. i?)/es— diameter 5 to 6V of, and situ- 

 ated in the middle of the length of head, the width of the interorbital space equals 1/3 of the length of the head. 

 Greatest width of the head equals its length behind the angle of the month. Upper jaw slightly the longer, 

 the width of the gape of the mouth equalling 2/5 of the length of the head. Barbels — the nasal reach the hind 

 edge of the eyes, the maxillary 1/2 to 2/3 as long as the head, the mandibular ones are shorter. Fins — dorsal 

 spine rather strong, 1/3 as long as the head and serrated on both sides. Colours — chestnut-brown, with two 

 bluish-white longitudinal bands, the superior proceeding from above the eye along the base of the dorsal 

 fin, the inferior from the maxilla along the middle of the side of the body. Sleeker observes that these bands 

 entirely disappear in adults. Vertical fins with black edges. 



Wounds from the pectoral spines of this fish are much dreaded by the natives of India as occasioning 

 phlegmonous inflammation or even tetanus. 



Habitat. — From the Red Sea and East coast of Africa through the seas of India to Japan and Polynesia. 



B. Air-vessel more or less enclosed in hone.* 

 Genus, 17 — Claeias, Gronovius. 



Macropteronotus, Lacepede ; Cossyplms and Phagorus, McClelland. 



Branchiostegals seven to nine. Gill-openings wide, the inembranes not being confluent with the shin of the 

 isthmus, and separated by a deep notch. A dendritic accessory branchial apparatus attached to the convex side of the 

 second, third, and fourth branchial arches is received into a recess above and behind the usual gill-cavity. Head 

 depressed, gape of mouth of moderate extent, anterior and transverse. Eyes small, with a free circular margin. 

 Barbels eight. Teeth villiform in the jaivs and in a band across the vomer. Dorsal fin long and spineless, extending 

 from the neck to the caudal, :with which it may be continuous : no adipose fin. Ventral with six rays. Pectoral wdh 

 a spine. Air-vessel small, transverse, lobed, and enclosed in bone. 



Mr. Kitchen-Parker, F.R.S. (on the shoulder girdle, Ray Society, 1868, p. 29) observes of the air-vessel 

 and its surroundings in Clarias. " The remarkable trumpet-shaped cavities belong to the Atlas and Axis 

 vertebrae, and they are strongly attached to the post-temporals and clavicles at their point of junction : they 

 lodge the lateral cornua of the three lobed air-bladder. These cavities are very imperfect below : but this 

 deficiency is largely supplemented by a transverse splint on each side, attached, below to the anterior edge of 

 the great cylinder of the atlas. There is a smaller splint in each cavity, and two smaller spHnts eke 



* This provisional subdivision of the Siluroisls is adopted merely for the sake of convenience. A considerable number of 

 dissections will be necessary before the grouping of this family can be satisfactorily arranj^ed. In some of those forms in which the 

 air-vessel is partially enclosed in bone such is effected by the auditory ossicles, in others by being enclosed in osseous capsules formed 

 from a vertebra, or ossified to the vertebrie. Placing the amphibious Clarias in the same suh-tamilv with Plotosus and C-haca, and 

 putting the amphibious Saccobranchus in another sub-family along with the non-amphibious Silurus, Wallago, and Eutropiichthys does 

 not seem natural. I have here loUowed Bleeker in placing the amphibious Clarias next to the eyually amphibious Saccobranchus. 



3 Q 2 



