MALAYAN FISHES. 45 
HAIRTAILS. 
(TRICHIURIDAE.) 
The Timah-timah (Trichiurus spp.) are some of our com- 
monest fishes and are generally on sale in the markets. 
I have never eaten them but the Chinese and: Indians purchase 
them readily. 
These fish have no caudal fin, the body being ribbon like and 
tapering to a fine point. 
Miniature specimens an inch or two in length form a con- 
siderable proportion of the catches of illegal purse nets. The or- 
dinary size of marketable specimens is about three to four feet. 
Day quotes Russell as observing that in his time they were 
esteemed by the European soldiers in India, and Jerdon states that 
they afford very delicate eating. 
SAIL-FISHES. 
(HISTIOPHORIDAR.) 
A family of large oceanic fishes, occurring in tropical or sub- 
tropical seas. On account of their formidable sword, large speci- 
mens are held in dread by fishermen and are rarely taken and still 
more rarely preserved. 
The Japanese in Hawaii have a regular fishery for Sail-Fish 
and Tuna. ‘The Japanese fishermen in Singapore, who are the 
only deep water fishermen in our waters and whose methods are 
much more enterprising and thorough than those of the Malays and 
Chinese, are taking these fish occasionally. 
I am informed that a Sail-Fish, three fathoms long was sold in 
the Clyde Terrace market within the past two weeks, but the in- 
formation arrived too late to enable me to get a photograph. 
This fish is known to Malays as Sélayer or Layeran (Layer, 
a sail), and is by no means rare. 
FLAT-FISHES. 
(PLEURONECTIDAE.) 
Flat fishes are a large group of some 500 species, mostly 
marine, 
The very young are transparent and symmetrical with an eye 
on each side, and swim in a vertical position like other fishes. 
As they grow, the eye of one side moves by degrees to the other 
side, where it becomes the upper eye. . 
If, at that age, the dorsal fin does not extend to the frontal 
region, the migrating eye simply moves over the line of the profile ; 
in other genera, the dorsal fin has already extended to the snout 
before the migration takes place, and the eye, passing between the 
