46 MALAYAN FISHES. 
frontal bone and the tissues supporting the fin, appears to pass from 
side to side through the head, as was believed by some of the earlier 
'observers.' 
As a food supply the flat-fishes are of great importance, the 
flesh of the majority being of excellent quality and flavour, and 
they are deservedly popular with Europeans in Malaya. 
The family is represented in our waters by, certainly, not less 
than 19 species, of which 12 are included in the systematic list in 
this work. 
The Malay generic Da are Ikan sabélah and Ikan lidah 
for all members “of this family, but in some districts the name 
Sabélah is applied to those genera which have a distinct caudal 
fin (Psettodes, Pseudorhombhus) and the name Lidah to the tongue- 
shaped genera (Synaptura, Plagusia, Cynoglossus). 
In the Straits of Malacca these fish are very common in shallow 
water on sand and mud where they keep close to the bottom. This 
habit of keeping close to the bottom renders them particularly 
lable to capture by the beam or “ Otter” trawl. I have taken 
these fish in a beam trawl in fair numbers both off Singapore and 
off the Krian coast. 
On the great Kra flats off Krian which are formed of very soft 
mud I found it necessary to fit “ ski” or wooden skates to the irons 
of the trawl to enable the trawl to slide on the surface of the mud, 
and took considerable numbers of these fish as well as some large 
Rays. 
I should expect a trawler to be successful on the long banks 
and in the deep water gullies which, as a glance at the chart will 
shew, run in the direction of the prevailing currents, in many parts 
of the steamer route between Penang and Singapore. 
An enormous amount of destruction of immature flat fish 
takes place daily in shallow water, specimens an inch or two in 
length being taken in seine nets and purse-nets from one end of 
the Straits to the other. A special effort should be made to stop 
this murder of miniature fish which has diminished our food supply 
to a very considerable extent. 
Two species of our Ikan sabélah are fauna on the Queens- 
land coast. One, Psettodes crumet, is known as the Queensland 
Halibut, and the other, Pseudorhombus rusellut, is generally called 
the “ Flounder.” 
GOBIES. 
(GOBIIDAE.) 
A large family of some 600 species, the great majority marine, 
mostly carnivorous and of small size. 
The largest form (Eleotris marmorata) from the rivers of Siam, 
Borneo, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula grows to nearly three 
feet, whilst the smallest (Mystichthys luzonensis) from the Philip- 
1 Cambridge Nat. History. 
