523 CICHLIDJE. 



intruder. Specimens containing eggs or embryos in the mouth and pharynx were 

 collected at Gharb-el-Aish, Kaka, and Fashoda in March and April, at Gondokoro 

 in March, and at Abu Zugoli (Blue Nile) in November. The eggs are oval, the 

 greater diameter being about 3 millimetres, and one female carries from 200 to 800. 

 The young, immediately after the absorption of the yolk-sac, measure 10 to 12 

 millimetres, and in their elongate form are more suggestive of Lates niloticus than 

 of Tilapia nilotica. One of these young, from Gondokoro, is here figured (p. 527), 

 magnified six diameters. 



The Bolti or Bolty, as this Tilapia is usually called in Egypt, is one of the 

 commonest luxuries of the people. The best specimens are believed to be from the 

 Birket Karun. 



Mr. Loat supplies the following list of native names: — " Bolte" or "bulti" ( ^L), 

 at Cairo, Samannud, Barrage N. of Cairo, Lake Edkou, Lake Borollos, Lake Mareotis, 

 Kafr-el-Zayat, Beni Souef, Fayum, Bosetta, Assiout, Akhmim, Omdurman ; " bolte 

 abyad" (" abyad" white) (^^1), on Lake Edkou: "bolte sultane" (^J'JaU J^) 9 at 

 the Birket Karun, Fayum; " musht" or " mi slit " (kA^), equally with the word 

 " bolte" but very rarely, and then only by the fellaheen in some places on the Delta and 

 in the neighbourhood of Cairo, but at Akhmim, Girga, and Nag tlamadeh it is used 

 as well as the w r ord "bolte"; " shabar " ( j\&) is the universal word for the genus 

 at Lake Menzaleh, the present species being termed "Shabar abbied" or White 

 Shabar; "shirr" ( ^), on Lake Borollos and Lake Menzaleh, where this term is some- 

 times applied to small fish of this kind; " ashweet" (ia^), the name given to small 

 " bolte" at the Birket Karun; "guncharr" (J^) ("kunjar" said to mean artichoke), 

 a term sometimes applied to medium-sized "bolte" at Kom-de-Mees, Lake Borollos; 

 "frateh'd" {^\J), between Shellal and Korosko. 



This Tilapia is notable as most frequently appearing in the graphic and plastic 

 representations of the ancient Egyptians. The oldest known representation (before 

 5000 B.C.) is the glazed pottery model of Hierakopolis *. Bronze figures are 

 abundant in collections; there is an ivory figure from the tomb of Magadan f. Very 

 numerous figures of the fish are recognizable in the mural paintings $. 



* Cf. Quibell, Hierakopolis (Egypt. Ees. Account, iv. 1900), pi. xxii. 



f Cf. J. de Morgan, Etbnogr. Prehist. (Paris, 1897), p. 193, figs. 



J Fishing-scenes of the pyramids of Giza and Sapara (cf Lepsius, Denkmaeler, Abth. ii. pis. ix. & 

 xlvi.).— Tomb of Ti, Sakkara (photograph in Prof. Flinders Petrie's collection).— Tomb of Ptah Hotep 

 (cf. Quibell, The Ramesseum, 1898, pi. xxxii.).— Chapel of Ptah Hotep (cf. N. de G. Davies, The Mastaba 

 of Ptahhetep, 1900, pi. xxv.).— Tombs of Deir el Gebrawi (cf. N. de G. Davies, Deir el Gebrawi, 1902, i. 

 pis. iii.-vi., ii. pis. iv., v.). 



