﻿Bola. GANGETIC FISHES, 83 



that I do not think them different species, although Dr Rus- 

 sell sajs, that the Madinawa bontoo never reaches a great 

 size. This 1 attribute to the large Gangetic estuaries being 

 the proper abode of the fish, and to their affording it a full 

 nourishment, while its growth may be stinted in the ocean, 

 where it was observed by Dr Russell. 



The different fishes called Jacob Evertsen by the Dutch sea- 

 men, and Jew-Jish by the English of the West Indies, have a 

 great affinity to that of which I am now treating ; but all, I be- 

 lieve, belong either to the genus called Sparus, or to that called 

 Bodianus ; while this should be a Holocentrus, as that genus is 

 defined by Bloch. I am inclined, however, to believe, that 

 many of the circumstances related by this author {Ichth. Tome 

 VII. p. 26, PI. CCXXIV.) concerning his Bodianus guttatus, 

 should be actually referred to the fish I am now describing; al- 

 though the figure which he gives probably represents another 

 fish. 



I have referred this fish to the genus Bola with a mark of 

 doubt, because, in the description, which I took long before I 

 had the present arrangement in view, I have omitted to notice 

 whether it possessed the characters by which the Bola is dis- 

 tinguished from the following genus called Corns. Its back 

 fins no doubt resemble those of the latter genus ; but the es- 

 sential character has not been placed in these ; while the native 

 fishermen place it among the Bolas ; and although, as will ap- 

 pear from the following description, it has very numerous cha- 

 racters in common with this genus, yet its affinity with the 

 genus Coins is so strong, that this term is applied by these peo- 

 ple as its specific appellation, making the whole name, as pro- 

 nounced by them, Cdibola or Cdibor. 



The Cdibola is found in the larger salt-water estuaries of the 

 Ganges, is usually between four and five feet in length, is an 



