Fishes collected at GondoJcoro. 261 



the Uganda Protectorate, arrangements havin,^ been made 

 for Mr. W. L. S. Loat, the Superintendent of the Survey, to 

 spend a few weeks at Gondokoro. No attention had been 

 paid to the fishes of that district since the expedition of 

 Mr. and Mrs. Petherick in 1853, on which occasion Dr. J. 

 Murie made a small collection which has been described by 

 Dr. Gunther*. 



Mr. Loat's stay at Gondokoro lasted from the beginning of 

 January 1902 to the end of March, during which period, in 

 spite of severe illness, he was able to bring together som3 

 three hundred specimens of fishes, referable to thirty-nine 

 species, a small number as compared to those obtained at 

 other points on the White Nile. But he informs me that 

 Gondokoro is a most unsatisfactory place to fish at, and that 

 the same is true of the station of Lado on the opposite bank 

 of the Nile, according to tlie statement of the officers of the 

 Congo Free State, whose experience extends to other periods 

 of the year. In fact they derive very little benefit from the 

 fishes for their subsistence, owing to the difficulty of pro- 

 curing them and to the insipid nature of the flesh of most of 

 th^ kinds which occur there, the Bolti [Tdapla nilotica) and 

 the Nile Perch [Lates niioticas) being the only exceptions. 

 Although I believe instructions were issued from headquarters 

 in Brussels to preserve fishes, if possible, for transmission to 

 the Congo Museum, the Belgian officers have so far been 

 unable to do anything to assist in this branch of natural 

 history. 



The collection made by Mr. Loat is therefore one of great 

 value for the study of the distribution of the Nile fislies, 

 even if not realizing the hopes that were entertained at the 

 outset of the expedition; and it is not quite deficient in 

 novelties, since it contains the type of a new Cichlid fish 

 of the genus Paraiilapia, a genus not previously known to 

 be represented in the Nile, although occurring in Lake Vic- 

 toria. This new fish is named Paratilapia Wingatii, after 



* Petlierick's ' Travels iu Central Africa,' ii., Appendix C (1869). — 

 Gondokoro is the southernmost localitj^ at which hshes were obtained 

 by the Petherick expedition. Dr. Giinther states (p. 201) thit Mr. Pethe- 

 rick collected '* on an affluent of the White Nile (B. il Gazal and Djoor) 

 south of Gondokoro." This is evidently a slip, the Bahr el Ghazal and 

 its upper range, the Djoor or Jur, is, as correctly shown on Petherick's 

 own map in the first volume of the work, north, and not soutli, of (iondo- 

 koro. The tishes brouglit home from Gondokoro belong to the following 

 species: — Clarices lazera, C. &: V.; Schilbe 7ni/Hus, L. (S. dispila, Gthr.) ; 

 Mochocus niloticus, .Toann. {Rhinof^laim ti/pus, Gthr.) ; Ophiocephalui 

 obscurus, Gthr. ; and Anabas Pctherici, Gtlir. 



Ann, di Mag. K Hist, Ser. 7. Vol. x. 19 



