POLYPTERUS. 11 



Gumah, White Nile) is anomalous in having 13 on one side and 14 on the other, the 

 fourteenth ray bearing a sharply pointed spine on the left side, whilst on the right 

 side it is not distinguishable from the articulated caudal rays that follow. 



P. endlicheri was originally described from the White Nile. It has since been 

 obtained in the Bahr-el-Gebel, in Lake Chad, and in the Niger. The following is a 

 list of the specimens from which the above description is taken : — 



2 Khartum.-— Petherick, 1863. 



2 Shederah, near Omdurman.— Loat, 31.12.00. 



1 Goz Shebesha, White Nile.— Loat, 3.1.01. 



2 Kawa, White Nile.— Loat, 5.1.01. 



1 Goz abu Gumah, White Nile.— Loat, 7.1.01. 



2 Fashoda.— Loat, 20-28.3.01. 



2 Mouth of Lake No.— Loat, 15.2.01. 



3 Gondokoro.— Loat, 15.2-11.3.02. 

 1 Lake Chad.— Capt. Gosling, 1905. 



1 Agberi, S. Nigeria. — Dr. Ansorge, 30.10,01. 

 3 Niger. 



The stomach of a specimen from Kawa contained a small Tilapia and a small 

 Synodontis. Mr. Loat has noted in one of the specimens from the mouth of Lake No 

 that when the month is opened the eyes sink into the sockets to a remarkable extent, 

 whilst when the mouth is closed they are about flush with the head. 



Native name at Kawa : " Dabib." 



B. POLYPTERUS SENEGALUS. 

 (Plate III.) 



Polypterus senegalus, Cuvier, Regne Anim. 2nd ed. p. 330 (1829), and Regne Anim. Illustr., Poiss. 



pi. cv. fig. 2 (1836) ; Guichenot, Mag. de Zool. 1839, Poiss. p. 11, pi. i. ; Steindachner, Sitzb. 



Ak. Wien, lix. i. 1869, p. 106, pi. i. figs. 3-5 ; A. Dumeril, Hist. Poiss. ii. p. 394, pi. xxiii. 



fig. 2 (1870) ; Steindachner, Denkschr. Ak. Wien, xliv. 1882, p. 52, pis. viii. & ix. fig. 2, and 



Notes Leyd. Mus. xvi. 1894, p. 92 ; Boulenger, Ann. & Mag. N. H. (7) ii. 1898, p. 419 ; 



Budgett, Proc. Cambr. Philos. Soc. x. 1900, p. 236 ; Boulenger, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1902, i. 



p. 124, pi. xi. fig. 3 ; Werner, Zool. Jahrb., Syst. xxi. 1904, p. 271. 

 Polypterus senegalensis, part., Giinther, Petherick's Trav. ii. p. 268 (1869). 

 Polypterus arnaudii, A. Dumeril, t. c. pi. xxiii. fig. 2. 

 Polypterus bichir, part., Giinther, Cat. Fish. viii. p. 326 (1870). 

 Polypterus senegalensis, Steindachner, Sitzb. Ak. W r ien, lxi. i. 1870, p. 718. 

 Polypterus bichir (non Geoffroy), Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1896, p. 218. 



Depth of body seven and two-thirds to ten and one-third times in the total length, 

 length of head five and three-fourths to seven times. Body cylindrical or slightly 



c2 



