124 



COMMERSON'S AMBASSIS. 



Ambassis Commersoni, — Cuv. et Val. 



PLATE XIV. 



Des Ambassis, Cuv. et Valen. Hist. Nat. des Poissons, ii. 1 75. 

 —Genus Chonda, Hamilt. Buchan. Gang. Fishes, 103. 



D. 7-1.9; A. 3.9 J C. 17; P. 12; V. 1.5. 



Ambassis is distinguished by the protracted 

 mouth, the toothing of the suborbitary bone, by the 

 double edge extending round the preopercle, the 

 serrating of the lower edge, and by the small 

 nearly concealed spine at the insertion of the first 

 dorsal fin. They seem to inhabit the tanks, salt 

 marshes, and pools of India, and to fill the same 

 place in the Indian ichthyology with some of the 

 small Cyprini and Sticklebacks of Europe. The 

 concealed spine is an approach to the latter. 

 According to Hamilton Buchanan, they are all 

 very small and of little value, although in many 

 places abundant, and used in considerable quan- 

 tities; but as food they are insipid, and filled 

 with small bones, for which defects their size 

 does not compensate. 



That which Cuvier has taken to illustrate the 

 genus is Commerson's Ambassis of the accom- 

 panying plate, one of the largest of the genus, 



