451 



Preoperclo rounded, its vertical border finely serrated, its hori- 

 zontal margin entire. Fins rounded. Colour on the back and 

 upper surface of the head greenish, variegated with red, silvery 

 white below ; dorsal greenish ; ventral, anal, and pectoral yellowish ; 

 tail reddish. 



Hab. Malabar ; growing to 3 feet in length. 



574. (15.) Serranus pantherinus. 



Holocentrus pantherinus, Lacep. II. N. Poiss. iii, t. 27. tig. 3, and iv, 



pp. 389 & 392. 

 Surniuu.3 malabaricus, Day, Fish. India, pp. 19, pi. iv, tig. 2, Supph 



p. 780 (see synon.). 



Punni-calaicah, Tarn. ; Bontoo, Tel. ; Soul, Chittagong ; Nya-towktoo, 

 Arrak. ; Kyouk-theyya-kaltadit, Burin. ; Rdb-na-dah and O-ro-tam-daJi, 

 Andamanese. 

 Variety, 8. bontoo : Madinatcah bontoo, Tel. ; Row-je-dah, Andani. 



D.I 1-12/15-17. A. 3/8-9. L.r. 105/95. L.;tr. 19/50. Ca>c.pyl. 50-60. 



Length of head 3^ to 3|, height of body 3| to 4 in the total 

 length. Eyes diameter 5 to 6 in length of head, 1 to 1| from 

 end of snout, and the same apart. Vertical limb of preopercle 

 slightly emarginate, finely serrated, more coarsely so at its rather 

 square angle, where there exist from four to seven coarse teeth ; 

 occasionally there are two or three serrations on the interopercle. 

 Fins the dorsal spines from the third are of about the same 

 height, but not so high as the rays ; the second anal spine in most 

 estuary specimens is as long as the third, but in marine ones 

 it is often slightly shorter; caudal rounded. Scales ctenoid. 

 Colour brownish, fading to grey or dirty white on the abdomen ; 

 the whole of the fish, even to the branchiostegal rays, covered 

 with bright yellow or orange spots, which often become brown after 

 death ; three large blotches on the inter-opercle. The var. S. ma- 

 labaricus, Bloch, is vertically banded. This variety is the commonest, 

 mostly marine, and the bands are uuusally well-marked in the 

 young. In the variety S. bontoo the bands when present bifurcate 

 and the spots are all black ; this is marine and the rarest form, 

 never appearing to attain to a large size. In the variety S. coioides, 

 H. B. = /S. suillus, C. V., the bands are absent, or else indistinctly 

 visible ; this is mostly taken in estuaries or large rivers, as the 

 Hooghly at Calcutta. 



Hab. Seas of India to the Malay Archipelago, China, and beyond; 

 attaining to a very large size. 



Kussell recorded one taken at Vizagapatam in January 1786 

 which measured 7 feet in length, 5 in girth, and weighed upwards 

 of three hundred pounds. 



575. (16.) Serranus corallicola. 



Serranus corallicola (Kultl $ v. Ilass.), Cuv. # Vol. ii, p. 336; Day, 

 Fish. India, p. 20 (see synon.). 



D. 11/15-16. P. 18. A. 3/8. L. r. 95/85-90. (Caec. pyl. 9, Kner.) 



