MARKINGS OF FISH. 385 



intensity in harmony with the nervous excitation of the fish. 

 The Austrahan Red Mullets, referable to the genus Upeneus, 

 are also frequently ornamented with corresponding cross- 

 bands. 



In the Sea Bream family, in addition to the genus 

 Chrysophrys already noticed, the members of the genus 

 Lutianus are commonly cross- banded, and the same plan of 

 ornamentation is conspicuous, in the young more especially, 

 of the typical " Schnappers," as represented by the genus 

 Pagrus. The true Mackerels, family Scombridcs, are notable 

 for a corresponding plan of decoration, the number of trans- 

 verse body stripes in this group however, being usually 

 extensive. The closely allied family group of the Horse 

 Mackerels, as represented by the genera Cybium and 

 Chironemus, are, for the most part, decorated in a similar 

 manner, the cross-bands in the last-named genus being more 

 usually, however, reduced to a series of ovate spots. The 

 Sole family, or Pleuronectidce, is one in which cross-banding 

 is of somewhat rare occurrence, but here two Indian species 

 known as Zebra Soles, Synaptura zebra and S. cornutum, 

 may be cited in illustration of the same fundamental 

 ornamental design. Cynoglossas semipasciatus and C. 

 puncticeps, again, afford examples in the same family group of 

 intermediate phases between the distinctly striped and wholly 

 unstriped varieties. 



There are numbers of fish in which the typical cross- 

 banding plan of ornamentation is represented simply by a 

 series of spots, and others that yield interesting modifications 

 in other directions. The Indian freshwater genus Barilius 

 is remarkable for containing a very considerable number of 

 species, the majority of which are ornamented with either a 

 series of par-mark hke cross-bands, or an equivalent serial 

 line of spots. One species, moreover, in this genus, Barilius 

 vendelisis, is represented by three local varieties, one of which 

 is plain-coloured, the second spotted, and a third transversely 

 striped. A striped Herring has not so far been recorded, 

 but there are many species, such as the Australian Clupea 

 sundaica and the several European Shads in which a sym- 

 metrically developed fine of spots remain, as vestiges of the 

 stripes possessed by some extinct ancestral type. 



Intermediate phases between typically striped and spotted 

 fish are yielded by the genera Barbus and Apogon, and in 

 both of which otherwise widely separated generic groups a 

 singular uniform pattern of ornamentation predominates. 



