XVIII. REPORT ON A SMALL COLLECTION 



OF FISH FROM PUTAO (HKAMTI LONG) 



ON THE NORTHERN FRONTIER 



O F B U R M A . 



By B. L. Chaudhuri, B.A., D.Sc. (Edin.), F.R.S.E., F.L.S., 



Assistant Superintendent, Zoological Survey of India. 



(With Plate XXII.) 



The fish described or discussed in this paper were recently 

 collected by Dr. Murray Stuart of the Geological Survey of India. 

 The collection though small and not including any specimens of 

 large size is of considerable interest. No fish has hitherto been 

 reported from the extreme northern corner of Burma, and several 

 interesting new forms are represented, the most remarkable of 

 which is an undescribed species of the genus Channa, which, 

 though known from both Ce3don and China, has not hitherto been 

 discovered in the eastern parts of the Indian Empire. 



In Dr. Stuart's collection there are altogether twenty-one 

 specimens, all from mountain streams in the Putao Plains (Hkamti 

 Long of the old maps) on the northern Frontier of Upper Burma. 

 These plains are entirely separated b^^ very high mountain ranges 

 from the watersheds of the Brahmaputra system (including the 

 Dihang and the Lohit) of the Assam and Tibetan Frontiers on 

 the west and the Mekong system (Yunnan) on the east. The 

 Sen-Ben-Ti, the Nam-Yak and the Nam-Ti-Sang mentioned in 

 the text belong to the Irrawaddy system. 



The twenty-one specimens examined belong to twelve species, 

 which fall into eleven genera representing five difi^erent families. 

 Except in three or four instances all the species, belonging to 

 quite unrelated families, have developed some kind of adhesive 

 or sucking apparatus — an interesting instance of convergence or 

 plasticity in the formation of specialized organs of a similar 

 nature in a restricted environment. 



List of species obtained. 



Sub-order OSTARIOPHYSI. 



Division SILUROIDEA. 



Family Sisoridae. 



Amhlyceps murray-stuarti ^ Chaudhuri, sp. nov. 

 ,,. mangois (Hamilton Buchanan). 



