PISCES. 203 



Helostoma KUHL and V. HASS. Mouth small, with fleshy lips. 

 Teeth very thin, adhering to lips not jaws. Dorsal and anal fins 

 placed in a furrow surrounded by scales. (Other characters and 

 habit nearly those of Poly acanthus.} 



Sp. Helostoma Temminckii Cuv. et VAL. Poiss. vn. PI. 194; at Java and 

 Borneo. 



Anabas Cuv. Body oblong, round, posteriorly subcompressed. 

 Head gibbous, flattened between the eyes, which are remote from 

 each other, marked with pores in rows. Margin of operculum and 

 suboperculum denticulate. Lateral line interrupted. Dorsal and 

 anal fins received in a longitudinal furrow surrounded by scales. 



Sp. Anabas scandens Cuv., Anthias testudineus BLOCH, Ichth. Tab. 322, 

 BUCHANAN Fishes of the Ganges, PL 13, fig. 38, GUEBIN Iconogr., Poiss. 

 PL 36, fig. i ; fig. of the skeleton in EOSENTHAL Ichthyot. Taf. xiv. fig. 2, 

 of the gills, figs. 3, 4 ; this fish is met with both in the rivers of the continent 

 of the East Indies and on different islands of the Indian Archipelago; it 

 attains a length of 6 7". According to DALDORFF (Linnean Transact, m. 

 p. 62) and JOHN (BLOCH Syst. Ichth. p. 205) this species sometimes climbs 

 up the palms on the bank and stays in the rain-water collected between the 

 leaves. BUCHANAN did not observe this peculiarity, and casts doubts upon 

 it, although he states that the fish can remain alive five or six days out of 

 water, 1. 1. p. 29. 



Phalanx II. All the rays of fins soft, articulate, except the 

 first ray of ventral fins simple. Scales cycloid. 



Ophicephalus BLOCH. Body elongate, round, posteriorly sub- 

 compressed. Head flat, covered with polygonal scutes. Gape of 

 mouth ample, produced below the eyes. Anterior orifices of nos- 

 trils with a very short tubule, placed at the lips. Teeth small, 

 crowded in jaws, vomer and palate-bones, sometimes with a few 

 larger interposed. Branchiostegous membrane with five rays. 

 Lateral line continuous. 



SnaTce-head, Korave (Pondicherry), Varal (Tranquebar), flcan Gabus 

 (with the Malays and Javanese). These fishes ought properly to belong 

 to the Malacopterygians, but they agree too nearly in the structure of the 

 laminiform gill-appendages and in other particulars with the other genera 

 of this family, to allow of their being placed elsewhere. 



Sp. Ophicephalus punctatus BLOCH, Ic/tth. Tab. 358 (Ophiocephalus lota, 

 BUCHANAN, Fish, of the Ganges, PL 34, fig. 18); Ophic. marginatus Cuv., 

 Ophic. gachua BUCHANAN, 1. 1. PL 21, fig. 21, Hindostan, Java; Ophic. 

 striatus BLOCH, Ichth. Tab. 359, Syst. Ichth. Tab. 52, Cuv. R. Ani., ed. ill, 

 Poiss. PL 75, fig. 2, Hindostan, Java, Celebes, &c. 



