318 



ON FISHES FROM THE PERSIAN GULF, THE SEA OF 

 OMAN, AND KARACHI, COLLECTED BY 

 Mr. F. W. TOWNSEND. 



(With 3 Plates.) 



By C. Tate Regan, B.A. 



(Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 16th March 1905. J 



Mr. F. W. Townsond, who has, within the lust tew years, presented 

 to the British Museum several collections of fishes from the Persian 

 Gulf, the Mokran Coast and Karachi, and also some specimens dredged, 

 at considerable depths in the Sea of Oman, has again collected a large 

 series at these localities and also at Muscat. 



This contains examples of 18 species which are described below as 

 new to science. I have added complete lists of the Fishes of the 

 Persian Gulf and the deep-sea forms from the Sea of Oman which 

 have been received from Mr. Townsend. In the case of those from 

 Muscat, I have given only those species which do not appear in 

 Steindachner's recent list (Denkschr. Ak. Wien., lsxi, 1902, p. 123), 

 whilst a list of those from the Mekran Coast is being published in 

 the Imperial Baluchistan Gazetteer. 



Willoy (Zool. Results, vi, p. 719, 1902) has noted the vertical position 

 of Amphisile when swimming, and gives a figure representing it with the 

 head upwards. One may feel inclined to suspect the correctness of this 

 figure in view of the following interesting observation of Mr. Townsend 

 on specimens of A. strigata (Gthr.) : — " Some of them were sufficiently 

 alive when dredged to swim in a tub of water, the position they took 

 up being head down, and they swam about in a vertical position using 

 the three fins near the tail to propel themselves, the middle fin seeming 

 to have the most business to do." 



Mr. Townsend writes that Mr. and Mrs. Whitby Smith have taken 

 great interest in his collecting, and I have named two new species, 

 Percis Smithii and Callionymus margaretce, in their honour. 

 1. DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES. 

 Hemirhamphus sindensis. 



Depth of body about If times its breadth and 9^ times in the length 

 (without caudal) ; length of head 2;^ times. Diameter of eye I3- times 

 in the postorbital part of head and nearly equal to the interorbital 

 width. Length of lower jaw in front of the termination of the upper 

 jaw a little longer than the rest of head ; upper jaw as long as broad ; 



