112 



SEREANID^E. 



Ventrals b';lo,i^ base of pectorals, with a scaly basal process. Vertebrae 

 21 (10 + 14). 



Indian and Pacific Oceans ; a few species in fresh waters. One 

 species is to be included in the African fresh-water fauna*. 



1. AMBASSIS COMMEHSONII. 



Centropomus amhassis, Lacep. Hist. Poiss. iv. p. 273 (1802). 



Amhassu conunersonii, Cuv. & Val. Hist. Poiss. ii p. 17G, pi. xxv. (1828); Bleek. 

 Verb. Batav. Gen. xxii. 1849, p. 30 ; Guntli. Cat. Fish. i. p. 223 (1859) r 

 Peters, Reise Mossainb. iv. p. 10 (1808) ; Day, Fish. Tiul. p. 52, pi. xv. fig. 3 

 (1875) ; Bleek. Atl. Ichthyol. viii. p. 13G, pi. Ixxiv. fig. 5 (1877) ; Ptefi". 

 Thiervv. O.-Afr., Fisclie, p. 4, fig. (189G). 



Ainbassis macracanthui^, Bleek. Verh. Batav. Gen. xxii. 1849, p. 30; Gunth. 

 t. c. p. 227. 



Amhassis prvdacttis, Guichen. Mem. Soc. Sci. C^herbourg, xii. 18GG, p. 130. 



Depth of body 2^ to 2| times in total length, length of head 3 times. 

 Snout convex, as long as or shorter than eye, which is 2J (young) to 3J 



FijT. 85. 



A)iihassis commersonii. 

 Type, after Cuvier and Valenciennes. 



times in length of head; interorbital width 3^ to oj times in length 

 of head ; lower jaw projecting ; maxillary extending to below anterior 



* The statement, in Playfair and Giinther's 'Fishes of Zanzibar,' p. 18, that Amhassis 

 vrotmiia. Bllav, occurs in fresh water in the Seychelles is probably a mistake, and is not 

 repeated in Pluyfiiir's later list of the Fishes of the Seychelles (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1807). 

 Tlie same reiuark applies also to Apoijoa hi/alosouici, Blkr. 



