ÎQI7J Fauna of the Chilka Lake : Fish. 5oi 



head and the post-orbital length of the head, is contained three and one-fourth times 

 in the length of the head. The snout is contained twice in the length of the head. 

 The lower jaw is longer than the upper by half the length of the longer diameter of 

 the eye. On the upper side of the free pointed end of the lower jaw there is a fleshy 

 cushion-like protuberance, which is continued over the tip down to the lower surface 

 of the protruded end of that jaw. The anterior end of the upper jaw is truncated 

 and thus fits behind the fleshy cushion on the upper side of the tip of the lower jaw. 

 The skin on the superior side of the truncated end of the upper jaw is finely striated. 

 The eye is large, lateral and ovate ; the anterior end of the eye is wider, the vertical 

 diameter being a little more than three-fourths of the horizontal diameter, which is 

 contained six times in the length of the head. The lower margin of the orbit is lower 

 than the middle of the depth of the head. The eyes have adipose eye-lids. The 

 breadth of the interorbital space about the middle of the eyes is contained six and 

 a half times in the length of the head. This space is slightly concave and there are two 

 ridges running through the interorbital space from the end of the snout to the occi- 

 put, running more and more apart either way than in the middle of the eyes. The 



Fig. 20. — Sphyraena raghava, Chaudhuri x \. 



two pairs of nostrils are close together, the posterior nostrils are lateral, are in the 

 form of vertically inclined slits and are provided with skin flaps, which are one- third 

 of the vertical diameter of the eye in advance of the anterior orbit : the anterior 

 nostrils are superior in position and are closer together, with tubular openings and are 

 in advance of the anterior orbit by half the horizontal diameter of the eye. The free 

 posterior end of the maxillary is dilated and round and reaches below the posterior 

 nostril of its side ; there is a triangular process on the maxillary bone above the angle 

 of the jaws which ends in a bony knob. 



The teeth in the jaws are uniserial. At the symphysis of the mandible, just pos- 

 terior to the fleshy tubercle, there is a pair of large fang-like teeth, placed side by side 

 very close to each other, and inclined together at an acute angle and directed in- 

 wards. There is a large round and deep groove correspondingly above at the sym- 

 physis of the upper jaw for the lodgment of this pair of canine-like teeth when the 

 mouth is shut. On each side of this pair of teeth, there is an empty round and 

 smooth interval in the jaw on each ramus of the lower jaw, beyond which there are 

 eight minute conical teeth in a single line placed close to one another ; posterior to 

 these small teeth there are seven or eight large conical teeth of various sizes quite 

 wide apart from one another, the size of the one further inward being larger than the one 



