052 PHYSOSTOMI. 



Family, VII— CHIROCENTRID^. 



Pseudobranchise absent. Body much elongated and compressed. Margin of upper jaw formed by the 

 premaxillaries mesially, and the maxillaries laterally. Opercular apparatus complete. Barbels absent. A 

 single rayed dorsal fin belonging to the caudal portion of the vertebral column. Body with thin, deciduous 

 scafes. Stomach with a blind sac : intestinal canal short.* No pyloric appendages. Air-vessel present. 

 Branchiostegal rays 8. 



Only one genus is known of this family which is confined to the Red Sea, and those of India to the Malay 

 Archipelago. Bleeker placed this family amongst his Clupeoidei, and next to the group Dussumieriformes. 



Genus, 1 — Chirocentrus, Cuvier. 

 Branchiostegals eiglil. AMomen with a sJiarp but not serrated margin. Gill-memhranes united for a short 

 distance : gill-opening wide. Eyes submfan'jous. Cleft of mouth ohlique ami deep : the lower jaw the lunger. A 

 row of canines in the mandible, and a horizontal pair in the premaxillaries : minute teeth on the palatines, 

 pterygoids, and tongtie. A single short dorsal fin placed far backwards opposite to a long anal : anelongated osseous 

 appendage in the axilla : ventrals very small. Scales thin, small, and deciduous. Air-vessel cellular. 



SYNOPSIS OF INDIVIDUAL SPECIES. 



1. Chirocentrus dorab, D. 16-17, A. 31-36. Red Sea, seas of India to the Malay Archipelago and 

 beyond. 



1. Chirocentrus dorab, Plate CLXVI, fig. 3. 



Clupea dorah, Forsk. p. 72, No. 108 ; Gmel. Lin. p. 1409 ; Russell, Fish. Vizag. ii, 78, and Wahlah, pi. 

 199 ; Lacep. v, p. 458. 



Esox chirocentrus, Lacep. v, p. 317, t. 8, f. 1. 



Clupea dentex, Bl. Schn. p. 428. 



C'Awice/t^ras riorafe, Riippell, N. W. Fische, p. 81 ; Cuv. and Val. xis, p. 150, pi. 565; Richard. Ich. 

 China, p. 311 ; Bleeker, Chiroc. p. 10, and Atl. Ich. vi, p. 92, t. 271, f. 3 ; Cantor, Catal. p. 277; Jerdon, M. J. 

 L. and Sc. 1851, p. 146. ; Day, Fishes of ilalabar, p. 223 ; Kner, Novara Fische, p. 340 ; Giinther, Cat. vii, 

 p. 475 ; Klunz. Fische Roth. Meer. Verh. z. b. Ges. Wien, 1871, p. 606. 



Chirocentrus nudus, Swainson, Fishes, ii, p. 294. 



Chirocentrus hypselosoma, Bleeker, Singap. p. 71, Chiroc. p. 25, and Atl. Ich. vi, p. 93, t. 269, f. 3. 



Mooloo-alley and Kiru-ivahlah, Tam. : Wahlah, Tel. : Kunda, Ooriah. 



B. viii, D. 16-17(Tjt„), P. 14-15, V. 6-7, A. 31-36(^^^), C. 19. 



Leno-th of head 6^ to 7^. of caudal 5-^-, height of body 6^ to 9 in the total length. Eyes — diametei- 

 41 in length of head, 1/2 of a diameter apart, and 2/3 to 1 diameter from end of snout. Upper lip terminating 

 anteriorly in a short mesial flap. Lower jaw the longer. The maxilla reaches to below the hind edge of the 

 eye. Teeth — one pair of long, sharp, straight and approximating ones exist near the centre of the premaxillaries, 

 the remainder of which, and the whole extent of the maxilla, is armed with sharp straight teeth of irregular 

 lengths, and becoming smaller at the posterior extremity of the jaw. Each mandible has a row of about 12 

 sharp laterally compressed teeth, of which the two first are the shortest, and those most anterior have an 

 oblique anterior direction, while the posterior ones gradually become directed more and more backwards until the 

 last form an acute angle with the jaw. Five or six large card-like teeth on the palatine bones, and a small 

 oval group of velvety ones on the pterygoid. Fins — the ventral commences midway between the end of the 

 snout and the base of the caudal : the dorsal is in about the posterior third of the body, above the anal. Along 

 the whole extent of the lower margin of the abdomen are short hair-like rays. Scales — sniall and deciduous. 

 iateraZ4me— indistinctly marked. Air-vessel - small, elongated and cellular. Colours — bluish-green along the 

 back : silvery on the sides and abdomen. 



Bleeker considered the above to consist of two species, C. dorab, heiglit of body 7, length of head 6 in 

 its length without the caudal fin, and scales smaller than in C. hypselosoma, the latter ha%'ing, height of body 

 5J-, length of head 5| in its leng-th without the caudal fin. 



^" Habitat. — Red Sea, through the seas of India to the Malay Archipelago and beyond. It attains at least 

 12 feet in length. \Yhen captured it bites at eveiything near it. 



* The mucous membrane of the intestinal canal has been said to have spiral folds, a character usually attributed to the highest 

 class of fish. Having carefully e.NaiiiiiuMl the anatomy of a fine specimen in a good state of preservation, I do not find this to exist. 

 The' mucous membrane is puckered intcj longitudinal folds, but there is no trace of a spu-al one in the single example e.\aniined 



