52 Records of flic Indian Museum. [Vol. XIV, 



depth of the body is about i the total length, that of the caudal 

 peduncle -,'.; to ^-j ; the length of the head slightly less than the 

 greatest depth of the body. The eye is large, a little shorter than 

 the snout and narrower than the interorbital space. There are no 

 barbels. The anterior border of the dorsal fin is immediately above 

 the vent and very slightly in advance of that of the anal ; it is much 

 nearer the base of the caudal than the posterior margin of the oper- 

 culum. The pectoral is long and narrow ; adpressed it reaches beyond 

 the base of the ventral, which does not reach the vent. The anal is 

 distinctly longer than the dorsal. The caudal is long and strongly 

 forked. The anal has a well-developed scaly sheath. The scales of 

 the body are large, thin, deciduous and obscurely sculptured. 



The pharyngeal bones are short and strongly curved. Each bears 

 about 13 sharp curved teeth arranged triserially. 



Preserved specimens are of a dark olivaceous green on the sides 

 and back and the upper surface of the head, white on the belly and 

 silvery on the sides of the head. There about 14 short bluish vertical 

 bars on the middle part of the sides, the series beginning behind the 

 operculum and extending backwards to the level of the posterior margin 

 of the dorsal ; on the caudal peduncle it is continued as an irregular 

 horizontal stripe formed by the coalition of further bars. The fins 

 are white and bear rows of minute black dots parallel to the rays. In 

 life this is one of the gorgeous freshwater fishes with which I am 

 acquainted. The back is suffused with deep purple, the vertical bars 

 and caudal stripe are bright ultramarine blue surrounded with a halo 

 of gold, the cheeks are brilliantly iridescent and the whole fish is silvery. 

 The fins of the adult male are pale greenish yellow. Specimens from 

 muddy streams are paler and less brilliant than those from the open lake. 



Large specimens from the Inle Lake are nearly 100 mm. long but 

 in streams in the neighbourhood they do not exceed 70 mm. 



Type-specimen. — No. F 9432/1 Zoological Survey of India [Ind. 

 Mils.). 



The species is common all over the Inle Lake and in streams and 

 rivers in the same valley. It is gregarious in habits and is the only fish 

 commonly seen at the surface of the water. The house we lived in 

 near Fort Stedman was built on poles out in the lake a mile from shore. 

 Large shoals of B. auropni-pureus were attracted by the refuse from our 

 kitchen, beneath and around which they swarmed for the greater part 

 of the day and apparently for the whole night, swimming immediately 

 below the surface. Their natural food in this position consists largely 

 of the small caddis-flies and mayflies that issue from the water every 

 evening and flutter over its surface in enormous numbers. In the 

 heat of the day the fish descend to the bottom, where, through the clear 

 water, we observed them tugging worms or insect-larva'^ from the mud. 

 As their mouths are not adapted for this mode of feeding they are 

 obliged to turn over on their sides or on their backs when they have got 

 hold of a worm the greater part of which is embedded. In clear water 

 at any rate, in which alone the fish attains its maximum brilliance of 

 colouration, it is extremely quick and wary in its movements, so much 

 so that the Intha fishermen, who do not despise much smaller fish, make 



