ir. 



SEREAmDJs. 



Ventrals below base of pectorals, with a scaly basal process, ^evtebrse 

 24 (10 + 14). 



Indian and Pacific Oceans ; a few species in fresh waters. One 

 species is to be included in the African fresh-water fauna*. 



1. AMBASSIS COMMERSONII. 



Centropomus amhassls, Lacep. Hi.st. Poiss. iv. p. 273 (1802). 



Amhassis commersonii, Cuv. & Val. Hist. Poiss. ii. p. 17G, pi. xxv. (1828); Bleek. 



Verb. Batav. Gen. xxii. 1849, p. 30 ; Giintli. Cat. Fish. i. p. 223 (1859) ; 



Peters, Reise Mossamb. iv. p. 10 (18G8) ; Day, Fish. Ind. p. 52, pi. xv. fig. 3 



(1875) ; Bleek. AtL Ichthyol. viii. p. 13G, pi. Ixxiv. fig. 5 (1877) ; Pfelf. 



Thiervv. O.-AEr., Fische, p. 4, fig. (189G). 

 Amhassis macracanthus, Bleek. Verh. Batav. Gen. xxii. 1849, p. 30 ; Giuith. 



t. c. p. 227. 

 Amhassis productiis, Guiclien. Mein. Soc. Sci. Cherbourg, xii. 1866, p. 130. 



Depth of body 2^ to 2| times in total length, length of head 3 times. 

 Snout convex, as long as or shorter than eye, which is 2^ (young) to 3^ 



Amhassis commersonii. 

 Type, after Cuvier and Valenciennes. 



times in length of head; interorbital width 3^ to 3^ times in length 

 of head; lower jaw projecting ; maxillary extending to below anterior 



* The statement, in Playfair and Giinther's 'Pishes of Zanzibar,' p. 18, that Amhassis 

 vroUenia. Blkr., occurs in fresh water in the Seychelles is probably a mistake, and is not 

 repeated in Playfuir's later list of the Pishes of the Seychelles (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867). 

 The same remark applies also to AiM<joti hi/alosoma, Blkr. 



