46 Records of i/ie Indian Museum. [Vol. XIV, 



Ciirhina latia (Ham. Buch.). 



1889. Cirrhina liitia, Day, op. rlt., p. 279. 



This fish has probably a number of local races, but the matter can- 

 not be settled without examining good series from many different parts 

 of India and Burma. In the Inle Lake it does not grow much longer 

 than 6 or 7 inches and is of a very slender form. It is abundant amongst 

 dense thickets of vegetation, but appears to live entirely on the bottom. 



Vast numbers are sometimes taken in the great fishing enclosures 

 erected in the lake by the Intha fishermen. As the suppl}- of fresh fish 

 then exceeds the demand, a considerable proportion of a large catch is 

 often dried in the sun, as a rule without being cleaned or salted. The 

 dried fish are sold in the bazaar sorted out into at least two sizes. 



Bar bus sarana caudimarginatus, Blyth. 



(Plate III, fig. 3.) 



I860. Barbus caiidimargiriatus, Blyth, -lourn. As. Soc. Berijril XXIX, p. 157. 

 1889. Barbus sarana, ^'inciguerra, op. cit., p. 287. 

 1893. Barbus Oatesii, Boulenger, op. cit., p. 201. 



I have examined a co-type of Boulenger's Barbus oatesii from Fort 

 Stedman and also a large series of specimens from the Inle Lake and the 

 He-Ho basin. They do not difler in any respect from specimens from 

 Tenasserim and Upper Burma in the Indian Museum identified by Day 

 and others as Barbus sarana. Moreover, the colouration of the living 

 fish agrees very closely with that given by Blyth as typical of his Barbus 

 caudimarginatus. In my own field-notes I find the following 

 description : — 



" Bluish green on back ; sides greenish silvery ; belly white. Pec- 

 toral fins olivaceous, other fins and lips reddish. Anterior border of 

 dorsal and upper and lower borders of caudal dark bluish green. A 

 vertical dark bar extending down posterior margin of preopercular and 

 another, somewhat curved, immediately behind the opercular border," 



I do not quite understand Boulenger's statement that each scale is 

 edged with black ; but this was probably an artificial condition. It 

 has disappeared in the co-type I have examined. 



I take it, for the reasons given, that this form is no more than a 

 Burmese race of the common Indian B. sarana (Ham. Buch.), dift'ering 

 only in colouration and in j)ossessing a more variable number of lateral 

 scales. Vinciguerra discusses its relationship to B. rubripinnis, Cuv. 

 and Val., B. pinnauratvs (Day) and B. chrysopoma, Cuv. and Val. and 

 seems to be of the opinion that the first at any rate may be identical 

 with Blyth's race, but I have not the material to discuss the question 

 further myself. 



The Burmese race of B. sarana is common in the Inle Lake, in which 

 it is not, according to the Intha fishermen, ever longer than a hand. It 

 is found chiefly near villages and among floating islands and is caught in 

 basket-traps and drift-nets. Its small size renders it less valuable than 

 ^ts larger congeners, but its flesh is said to have a good flavour. 



