SUNIER: Marine fish-ponds of Batavia. 241 
Twenty-two days after the evaporation of the water had been started 
I found the animal dead in the morning. It was then however no longer 
afloat but was couched on its belly and on the laterally spread pectoral 
fins, entirely shrunk and shrivelled up, at the bottom of the water, the 
salinity of which then proved to be 108.2 °/,,'). The permeability of the 
skin had evidently increased to such an extent when death had set in that 
a large quantity of water could be drawn from the animal’s body by the 
strong salt-solution forming its milieu, It is therefore proved that the kepala 
timah can bear a gradual increase of the salinity of its milieu up to at 
least 108 °/ 
Between the limits on the one hand of the salinity of the water of 
the Java-Sea and on the other of that of fresh (even distilled) water, the 
kepala timah will furthermore bear all possible sudden transitions in the 
matter of salinity. The remark of SEYMOUR SEWELL and CHAUDHURI (*), 
that Maplochilus panchax, melastigma and lineolatus “if the process 
is carried out sufficiently slowly, can be acclimatised to live 
in brackish water, etc.”, must accordingly as far as regards Haplochilus 
panchax be very certainly relieved of the restriction spaced out here. 
As regards Haplochilus javanicus, which as it appears to me corres- 
ponds in many - respects with Haplochilus melastigma (MC. CLELL.), 
mentioned by SEYMOUR SEWELL and CHAUDHURI (%), the said restriction 
may perhaps be correct. Haplochilus javanicus is not only smaller and 
of slighter build than Haplochilus panchax, but it moreover seems to me to 
possess less power of resistance than the latter species in various respects. 
§ 2, The eggs and embryos of Haplochilus panchax (Ham. Buch.) 
and Haplochilus javanicus (Bikr.). 
As is already remarked by DAY (7), Haplochilus panchax has eggs, which 
in proportion to the dimensions of the animals body, are very large. 
This tallies with the fact that the kepala timah is originally a genuine 
fresh-water fish. 
“Der Laich wird einzeln an Wasserpflanzen abgesetzt und sofort befruchtet” 
is all that BREHM (*) remarks concerning the eggs of Haplochilus species. 
SEYMOUR SEWELL and CHAUDHURI (°°) only mention that the female 
of Haplochilus melastigma (MC. CLELL.) is known to carry her eggs about 
with her in clusters of 30 to 36, attached to the abdomen, behind the 
ventral fins. 
I soon found the eggs of Haplochilus panchax (fig. 17—21) both in 
the empangs and in the aquaria in which I kept the live kepala timah. 
In both cases the eggs were attached to Chaetomorpha-tilaments. The 
I) Determined by means of two KüCHLER-areometers carefully cleaned of grease, 
after diluting one weight-part of the filtered salt solution with three equal weight-parts 
of distilled water. The result was 4X 26.94 = 107.76 9/9, and- 4 X 27.16 = 108,64 %/go, 
108.2 °/99 being the average between these two, 
