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ON THE ICHTHYOLOGY OF THE SEAS OF CHINA AND JAPAN. 283 
line without any rounding before the dorsal, The maxillary barbels réach to the gill-opening, 
the exterior submandibular pair are half as long, and the interior pair a quarter as long, The 
operculum is finely veined, and the roughness of the nuchal plate is shown in the drawing by 
fine gold points. The lateral line is flatly arched over the pectoral, and takes a straight course 
from the tip of that fin to the caudal rather above mid-height. The points of the ribs form 
an oblique line from the shoulder to the anal. The dorsal and pectoral spines are slender and 
serrated in front: their posterior teeth, if they possess any, are not shown in the drawing. 
The top of the head, nape and back is sap-green, with fine parallel streaks of a deeper tint, 
bent en chevron near the dorsal line, and disappearing at the lateral line; the sides and belly 
are silvery with a purplish reflexion. There are some crimson tints round the mouth, and 
purplish ones at the union of the gill-pieces and on the breast; also a greenish-yellow border 
round the end of the tail embraced by the caudal. The dorsal is celandine-green, with darker 
rays tinged with crimson at the base. The adipose fin is yellow, with a black spot on the 
edge. The pectorals and ventrals have crimson-coloured rays and buff membranes. The anal 
is sulphur-yellow and the caudal a dingy wax-yellow. This drawing agrees in several par- 
ticulats with the description of Arius ocellatus noticed below. 
Hab. Canton. 
BAcrus timBatus, Richardson. 
Note of Mr. Réeves’s drawings represent this fish; which was brought from Canton by the 
Rev. G. Vachell ; the only one that it resembles in having eight barbels being the Pimelodus ? 
fulviedraco noticed below. From this it is distinguished by all the fins being edged with black, 
and the specimen shows no traces of the peculiar markings of fulvi«draco. I examined it 
cursorily, and noted down only a few of its characters. There is a short viliform dental plate 
on the vomer, set more densely and with shorter teeth than the jaws, and continued without 
a break over the mesial line. The casque terminates over the base of the péectorals, but sends 
out a natrow styloid process which touches the small chevron of the second interspinous bone. 
The adipose fin rises imperceptibly from the dorsal line, and the ventrals are smaller than 
those of B.? crinalis, and do not reach to the anus. The ventrals have six rays, the last of 
which is divided to the base. A supra-axillary plate is half the length of the pectorals, and 
tbe nasal cirrhus is short. 
Hab. Canton. Specimen in the Cambridge Philosophical Institution. 
? Bacrus (an Pimetopus ?) BouDERIUS, Richardson. Icon. Reeves, 203 ; 
Hardw. 183. Chinese name, ew yu, “ Buffalo fish” (Birch) ; Nou yu, 
* Cow fish” (Reeves); Ngaw u (Bridgem. Chrest. 194). 
A spécimen of this fish éxists in the Chinese collection at Hyde Park, but we liave -not ex- 
amined the palate so as to ascertain from its dentition whether it is properly placed in this 
genus or not. Ifit be a Bagrus it belongs to the group which have eight barbels, a long anal 
and a comparatively short adipose fin, It comes nearest to B. vdcha (Buch. Ham.) of any 
member of the group described in the ‘ Histoire des Poissons,’ but may be at once distinguished 
by its much smaller mouth and fleshy lips. The liad, viewed in profile, is depressed, taper- 
ing and rather pointed, with the eye rather nearer to the gill-opening than to the énd of the 
snout. The lower jaw is shorter than the snout, and the mouth is not cleft so far back as the 
posterior nostrils, which aré about midway betwéen the eye and end of the snout. ‘The nape 
rises suddenly in an arch from the hind hedd, and then runs backwards with little ascent to 
the first dorsal. The height of the body there is equal to the length of the head, or to one- 
fifth of the total length of the fish. The maxillary barbels are rather longer than the head: 
the exterior submatidibular ones are a thitd shorter, while the nasal barbels and the interior 
submandibular ones are a little longer than the quarter of the length of the head. The lateral 
line is arched at the commencement, and then runs nearly straight from before the first dor- 
sal to the caudal, a little above the middle height of the body. [In B. buchanani, Val., 
the latéral line is straight from end to end.] The pectoral spine is strong, and is strongly 
serfated towards its tip interiotly. A tfiangular plate proceeding from the humeral chain is 
shown very boldly in the figure above the fin. The dorsal spine is draWn without serratures, 
taller than the soft rays, pretty stout and rather spindle-shaped, with a tapering acute point. 
Six soft rays are shown. ‘The ventrals are pretty large, but smaller than the pectorals; the 
anal long, containing above thirty rays; the adipose fin of a moderate size; and the caudal 
deeply forked, but with the lobes rather obtuse and equal. The colour on the dorsal aspect 
is dark mountain-green or greenish-gray, passing high on the sides into sienna-yellow, which 
continues down to the pale lilac edge of the belly. There are no spots; The fins have all 
more or less of lake or crimson-red with greenish rays. The two colours are most distinctly 
separated on the anal, the base being rose-red or carmine, and the outer half gtass-green. 
