246 

 i. Chaca chaca (Ham. Buch.). 



Platystacus chaca Hamilton Buchanan, Fishes of the Ganges, 1822, p.p. 140, 173. 

 Chaca lophioides Valenciennes, in Belanger, Voy. Ind. Orient. Zool. Poiss. 



1834, p. 386. 



Chaca lophioides Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. XV. 1840, p. 545. 

 Chaca bankanensis Bleeker, Natuurk. Tijdschr. Ned. Ind. III. 1852, p. 455- 



Atl. Ichth. II. 1862, p. 96. 



Chaca lophioides Kner, Sitzber. Akad. Wien, XVII. 1855, p. 101. 

 Chaca lophioides^ bankanensis^ buchanani Gfmther, Cat. Brit. Mus. V. 1864, p. 29. 

 Chaca bankanensis v. Martens, Exp. Ost-Asien, Zool. I. 1876, p.p. 302, 399. 

 Chaca bankanensis Volz, Zool. Jahrb. Syst. XIX. 1903, p. 383. Revue Suisse 



Zool. XII. 1904, p. 463. 



B. 6; D. i. 34; A. 710; P. i. 4 5 ; V. 6; C. 2025 + 



10 II -f 8 12. 



Height about 6. Head a little longer than broad, 3 times 

 in length. Eye in the anterior ! /4 f tne head, very small, 

 15 20 in head. The width of the interorbital space equals 

 half of the head. Dorsal spine 5 6 times in length of head, 

 its frontborder at the top with a few indentations, much 

 shorter than soft rays. Rounded ventrals 2 J / 3 in head. Pectorals 

 about ! / 3 shorter, their spine 3 times in head, strongly dentated 

 along its anterior border. The cutaneous appendages on top 

 and sides of head and on sides of body are, according to 

 individuals and perhaps to sex, tubercular, shorter or longer, 

 simple or arborescent. Lighter or darker brownish, marbled 

 with lighter, especially on the fins, which may have a whitish 

 border. Length 200 mm. 



Nomen in dig. : Puting bliong (Djambi), Tuka (Danau 

 Sriang, Borneo). 



Habitat: Sumatra (Djambi!, Laut Tador, Sungei Mati, 

 Indragiri, Djapura, Taluk!); Borneo (rivers Barito and Kapuas, 

 Danau Sriang, Sarawak); Banka. Malacca, Burmah and British 

 India. Kner mentions the fish from New Guinea. This is 

 without question erroneous. 



In rivers and lakes. Its flesh is considered to be poisonous 

 by the natives in some parts of Sumatra. 



5. Fam. PANGASIDAE. 



Elongate, compressed, head generally covered by soft skin. 

 Mouth small, anterior or subanterior, in the last case snout 

 prominent. Eye with a free orbital margin, behind corner of 



