4 o8 Memoirs of the Indian Museum, [Vol. V, 



spots and measures 117 mm. in length without the caudal fin. This specimen also 

 cannot be said to have anything to do with l( the beautiful little fish very common in 

 ponds ' ' to which Hamilton Buchanan gave the name. Thus Day used the name 

 " sophore " of Hamilton Buchanan for two very different fishes — one from the Khasia 

 Hills and the other from Burma. Hamilton Buchanan in his work The Fishes of the 

 Ganges described only those he came across, in his statistical survey of the Bengal 

 Districts, in the Ganges and its tributary streams, except " a few he observed in the 

 rivers of the south of India" (see his Introduction, p. vii) ; the names of these, 

 however, have no number prefixed to them in the synoptical table. There is no 

 record that Hamilton Buchanan received any collection from the Khasia Hills or 

 Burma. Day, moreover, had adopted for the Bengal fish the name Barbus stigma. 

 This name was invented by Cuvier and Valenciennes for a small Barbus from Mysore 

 which is a local race of Barbus sophore of Hamilton Buchanan, as defined by him in 

 Latin in the synoptical table No. 42 (p. 389) supported by figure 86 of plate xix of his 

 Illustrations, as well as by the detailed description in English in which unfortunately 

 two obvious mistakes occur. These mistakes were duly corrected by McClelland and 

 Günther long before Day thought it necessary to take advantage of one of them to 

 change the prior name of a very common species of fish occurring everywhere in ponds 

 in Bengal and to adopt a much later name invented for the local race of the same 

 fish found in Mysore. 



The following list gives the distribution of the fish in the lake: — 



6 



specimens 



Barkul 



. . i3-xi-i2, 



measuring 19 mm. 



to 56 mm. 



2 



)> 



»? • • 



i-ii-13, 



,, 40 mm. 



and 41 mm 



32 



S) 



sj • • 



21-IX-14, 



,, 39 mm. 



to 51 mm. 



2 



»J 



Off Barkul .. 



25-1-14, 



,, 40 mm. 



and 48 mm 



1 



specimen 



Off Nalbano . . 



18-IX-1.4, 



37 mm. 





2 



specimens 



Nalbano 



. . 25-XI-14, 



33 mm. 



and 42 mm 



1 



specimen 



Rambha Bay 



February, 1914, 



43 mm. 





The specimens collected during the dry months have the black spots very con- 

 spicuous and bright, but do not show any trace of longitudinal coloured bands, nor 

 are their fins tinted pink. On the other hand the specimens collected after the 

 floods are found to have one or other of the two black spots indistinct or wanting, 

 and most of them show coloured longitudinal bands and the ends of the ventral fins 

 are pink. In some, however, no coloured bands are visible — and in these the upper 

 half of the body is dark brown and the lower half dull silvery. 



Distribution: — Fresh waters of India and also in tidal rivers from Sind to Burma 

 including Assam. 



Barbus ticto (Hamilton Buchanan). 



1822. Cyprinus ticto, Hamilton Buchanan. Fish. Gang., pp. 314 and 389, pi. viii, fig. 87. 



1839. Systomus ticto, McClelland, Asiat. Researches, XIX, p. 382. 



1841. Rohtee ticto, Sykes, Trans. Zool. Soc, p. 365. 



1849. Systomus ticto, Jerdon, Maar. lourn. Lit. Sc, XV, p. 318. 



1849. Systomus tripunctatus, id., ibid., XV, p. 316. 



