14 E. LÖNNBERG, THE ICHTHYOLOGY OF THE CASPIAN SEA, 



Praeabdominal length in % of tot. length 26,1 



Postabdominal » »»»» $ 22,6 



Length of pectoral fins »»s » » 14,7 



Height of dorsal fin »»»» » 14j 



Base » » » j>2>2» s 11," 



» > anal » »»-.;. » 9,7 



Lateral line 48 (49), transversal line f 1. 

 Pharyngeal teeth 6 — 5. 

 Number of dorsal rays 3 + 10. 

 > 5> anal » 3 + 10. 



A fish with the above written measiireinents and charac- 

 teristics was obtained in Petrovsk in the middle of April last 

 year. I picked it out myself among a load of herrings just- 

 caught with a seine. The specimen agrees fully in all essen- 

 tial points with Heckel's description of Leuciscus virgo,^ which 

 perhaps may be fonnd to constitute only a race of L. pigus 

 Lacépéde, as it is regarded by Gunther, although there is 

 some difference in height etc. according to Heckel (1. c). It 

 seems as if this fish was as yet not recognized as belonging 

 to the Caspian fauna. In his work on the fishes of the Aral- 

 Caspian and Black Sea (Petersburg 1877) Kessler mentions 

 that Peltsam has recorded this sjjecies from Volga, but Kess- 

 ler himself thinks that such a statement depends on a mis- 

 take. In Varpachovskij's work on the Russian freshwater 

 fishes (Petersburg 1898) the name is not even mentioned. 

 The same is also the case in Grimm's book on the fisheries of 

 the Caspian Sea and Volga (Petersburg 1896), and in »Mu- 

 seum Caucasicum» edited by Rådde (Tifiis 1899). My friend 

 Dr. N. BoRODiNE has also, in a letter, told me that there are 

 no other notices about the existence of this fish in the Cas- 

 pian Sea except Peltsam's already mentioned. It seems, how- 

 ever, sure that it is an inhabitant of this region, although 

 not so coinmon and perhaps confounded with others. It is, 

 however, quite easy to recognize by the shape of its body, 

 the inferior situation of the mouth, the upper jaw conspicu- 

 ousiy projecting beyond the lower, the broadly rounded 

 snout etc. 



I have used the specific name iviryo^ because the fish in 

 question agrees better with Heckel's description of this form 



^ Die SiiBswasserfische d. Oesterreicb. Monarchie, Leipzig 185b<, p. 158. 



