144 Report on some Fishes received from Sitang Hiver. [No. 2, 



and the short pectorals have about fifteen rays ; the caudal about 

 seventeen. 



D. 10-16.—A 3-14.— V. 1-5 or 6.— P. 15 ?— O. 17 ? 



From the diminutive size of the fish, it is difficult to count the 

 fin-rays even with the help of a magnifier. The colour (in spirit) is 

 uniform dusky-brown ; but Major W. S. Sherwill, who discovered 

 this species in the Mutla river during the month of May, swimming 

 in shoals of about fifty each, in mid-stream during the height of the 

 tide, assures me that about ten individuals of such a shoal were of a 

 brilliant cobalt-blue colour, about twenty bright yellow, and the 

 remaining twenty a rich brown, — differences no doubt of sex and of 

 breeding condition. 



Fam. Macrognathidce. 



Mastacembalus, Grronov. Of this genus we possess — 1. M. uni- 

 colok, K. et v. H. ; from the Sitang ; — 2. M. pancalus, (B. H.) ; 

 very common in Lower Bengal; — 3. M. zebbinus, nobis, J. A. 8. 

 XXVII, 281, from the Sitang, which some might consider to be a 

 strongly marked race of the last ; — and 4. M. abmatus, Lacepede 

 (apud Cuvier) ; very common in Lower Bengal, and here varying 

 chiefly in the markings being more conspicuously developed in the 

 young. It is accurately figured by Buchanan Hamilton, and incor- 

 rectly coloured (so far as the Bengal race is concerned) in the His- 

 toire des Poissons. Dr. Bleeker identifies with it M. ponticerianus 

 et M. marmoratus, C. V., and also M. undulatus, McClelland. The 

 last is from China, and it agrees sufficiently with some Bengal exam- 

 ples of the species, except that it is stated to have three spines 

 anterior to the anal fin ; but I have seen none resembling in its 

 variegation the M. marmoratus, C. V., and 21. venosus, Val., as 

 figured in the Zoology of Jacquemont's Voyage, nor the IT. armatus 

 as figured by Sykes. Dr. Jerdon recognised three species in S. India, 

 all of which were considered by him to be different from that of 

 Sykes — viz. his ponticerianus, which is doubtless true abmatus of 

 Bengal, with 78 dorsal and 72 anal rays, — his marmoratus with D. 

 84 to 87 and A. 90 to 92,' — and his malabaricus with 74 of each; 

 the number of soft rays in the first and second according with those 

 given by Cuvier and Valenciennes. A Tenasserim race now sent is a 

 little differently marked from abmatus of Bengal, and the fins 



