152 MB. i*. DAT OS THE aEOGKAPillCAL DISIEIBUTION Of 



ing the belief that the freshwater fishes of the Audamauts and 

 Nicobars are identical with those of India. But as freshwater fishes 

 cannot live in the sea, they are unable to pass from the mainland 

 to distant islands ; consequently there must at some anterior 

 period have been a land connexion to make the continuity of the 

 fresh waters possible. Admit such to be a fact, there arises the 

 question, Are the aborigines to be considered African whilst the 

 freshwater fish are ladian ? or are we to look to the remnants of 

 the aboriginal races of the hills of Hindustan to find the relatives 

 of these people ? Does not the presence of these Indian fishes at 

 the Andamans afford another link in the evidence that those coral 

 islands are sinking ? for were they rising from the ocean, how could 

 we expect to find OphiocepJialus gacliua, H. B., and HaplocJiilus 

 panchax, H. B., in existence in their fresh waters ? Introduced the 

 latter one could not have been ; for it to cross the intervening seas 

 is an impossibility, — leaving us to believe either in a former land 

 connexion or a new creation, and that not of new species but of 

 fishes identical with those on the mainland of India. Again the O. 

 leucopunctatus appears in the Deccan and around the coasts, reap- 

 pearing in China. But the O. micropeltes is still more extraordi- 

 nary : it appears to be confined to Canara and Malabar nearly 

 as far south as Cochin ; then it is entirely absent until Siam is 

 reached, whence it extends eastwards. 



Genus Chamna. 



C. ORiENTALisS BL ScJin. 



This species has only been found in Ceylon. It is very similar 

 to OjoJiioceplialus gachica, which is frequently found with one of 

 its veutrals deficient. 



Fam. Labybinthici. 

 Genus Anabas. 



A. SCANDENS^ Dald. 



Throughout Bengal, Assam, throughout Southern India, the Malabar 

 coast, and Ceylon ; also Burma to the Malay archipelago and beyond. 



Genus Poltacanthus. 

 1. P. cupanus, Cuv. ty Val. 

 Southern India on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. 



^ Includes Channa indica, Gronov. ed. Gray. 



■^ Includes : — Antkias iestudhieus, Bloch ; Cojuscobojius, Ham. Buck. ; Anabas 

 ipinosHs, Gray & Hardw. ; A. trifoliatus, Kaup ; A. oligoh'pis, Giiutber. 



