SUNIER: Marine fish-ponds of Batavia. 229 
mentions green only as the chief colouring (“colore corpore viridi”); 
DAY (7) says “upper surface greenish”. 
Along the animal's sides this greenish-brown colour especially on the 
anterior half of the body shades into a metallic green, between which, 
however, blue may also occur. Behind the ventral fins this metallic green 
passes on the belly-side into the pale-blue or lilac metallic hue already 
referred to. The under-surface before the ventral fins and between the 
pectoral fins is a soiled white. 
Along the middle of the back there is often a fine dark longitudinal 
line stretching from just behind the occipital spot to more or less near 
the dorsal fin. The proximal extremities of the fore- and hind-edge of the 
dorsal fin mostly bear one little white spot each, often extending to just 
on to the back. The free ventral and posterior edge of the operculum is 
yellow, or sometimes a greenish yellow. The orbits viewed from above 
are often malachite-green. The iris is golden-yellow with dark spots or 
an entire dark ring along the outer circumference. BLEEKER (+) already 
notices that near the edges of the scales the colour of the skin is darker 
(HC OLONE eat. marginibus squamarum profundiore”). 
Fig. 16. Haplochilus javanicus (BLKR.) from the Batavia empangs, 
seen from the left side, X 3. 
Under the microscope it appears that the skin contains much black 
pigment along the sunken anterior edge of each scale. In the middle of 
this black pigment-border is found a more or less markedly developed 
orange-red spot, especially on the caudal half of the belly-side. The free 
posterior edge of the glassy transparent scales is not marked by pigment 
and is consequently not very easy to see. In fig. 14 and 15 it is not 
really the scales that are traced but only the pigment-lines along the anterior 
edge of the scales. 
A quite correct description of the colours of a fish can really be given 
only by observing under the microscope how the various colours and hues 
originate. This can be done with a kepala timah by placing a specimen, 
immediately after clipping off the head with a pair of scissors, under a binocular 
microscope and observing it through e.g. the pair of objectives (2s) and 
the Huygens’ oculars no. 3 of Zeiss. 
