ALESTES. 



129 



the sides ; fins pink or orange, the caudal often edged with grey Or blackish. Iris 

 reddish orange. Young specimens usually have a blackish spot on each side of the 

 caudal peduncle, and another on the shoulder. 



The numerous specimens examined by me measure from 30 to 420 millimetres. I 

 have counted the fin-rays and scales in eighty specimens. Two have 7 branched rays 

 in the dorsal fin, the rest having the normal number, 8 ; 12 branched rays in the anal 

 occurs fourteen times, 13 occurs fifty-five times, 14 occurs eleven times ; five specimens 

 have 22 scales in the lateral line, seventeen have 23, thirty-two have 24, twenty 

 have 25, and six have 26. 



Alestes macrolepidotus has a wide distribution, being known from the Nile System, 

 the Omo, the Senegal, the Niger, and Lake Tanganyika. The specimens examined by 

 me are from the following localities : — 



1 Nile.— Ruppell, 1833. 



1 Kosheh, Nubia,— Loat, 19.3.00. 



1 Khartum.— Petherick, 1862. 



1 Wad Medine, Blue Nile.— Loat, 5.10.01. 



20 Kosaires, Blue Nile.— Loat, 28.10.01-3.11.01. 



60 Gondokoro.— Loat, 17.1.02-19.3.02. 



1 Fajao, Victoria Nile.— Budgett, 25.8.02. 



2 Omo River. — O. Neumann, 1901. 



2 Cojeb River, affluent of Omo River, 2500 ft.— Zaphiro, 27.5.05. 



3 Jebba, Upper Niger.— Dr. C. Christy, 1899. 



1 Mureji, Upper Niger.— Budgett, 1903. 



6 Agberi, Lower Niger. — Dr. Ansorge, 1901. 



2 R, Benue, north of Ibi. — Norton Smith, 1906. 

 6 Old Calabar.— Miss Kingsley, 1895. 



The species has also been recorded from other parts of Africa, but through confusion 

 with closely allied species which I have described under the names of A. grandisqiiamis 

 (Congo), A. brevis (Liberia, Lagos, Gold Coast), A. latesii (Cameroon), and A. rhodopleura 

 (L. Tanganyika), and the distinctive characters of which are given in the 'Annals and 

 Magazine of Natural History ' (7) x. 1903, p. 595, and Tr. Zool. Soc. xvii. 1906, p. 548. 

 It is, however, quite possible that the true A. macrolepidotus occurs in the Congo, as 

 a young specimen recently obtained near Leopoldville by Dr. Christy appears to be 

 referable to that species. 



Alestes macrolepidotus was described by Valencienues from a specimen from the 

 Senegal, the author at the same time expressing the opinion that a coloured sketch 

 made by Bifaud * in the Upper Nile of a fish named " Cambout " was referable to the 



* This sketch has been reproduced in the incompleted work of that traveller, pi. 189, and it is surprising 

 that it should have been referred by Heckel to A. dentecc. 



S 



