370 ACANTHOPTERTGn. 



most successful. Should tlie fisH he still alive cut off the projecting or caudal portion, causing it to 

 die of hsemorrliage. When dead the parts easily reached may be removed, but any force being employed is most 

 injudicious. An elastic catheter, if necessary, may be passed past the fish in order to feed the patient, but the 

 decay of the animal is most rapid, whilst a little smell more or less is immaterial to a native of the East. 



SYNOPSIS OF INDIVIDUAL SPECIES. 

 1. Amlas scmdens, D. L-tV) A.- ¥-ii> L. 1. 28-32, L. tr. 15-16, Caec. pyl. 0—3. India and the East. 



A. Teeth on the palate. 

 Anabas scandens, Plate LXXVIII, fig. 3. 



Perca scandens, Dald. Trans. Linn. Soc. iii, 1797, p. 62. 



Antldas teslmdmeus, Bloch, t. 322. 



Airuphiprion testvdineus et sccmsor, Bl. Schn. pp. 204, 570. 



Imtjamis testudo et scandens, Lacep. iv, pp. 235, 239. 



Spams testudineus et scandens, Shaw, Zool. iv, pp. 471, 475. 



Cojus cohojms, Ham. Buch. Fish. Ganges, pp. 98, 370, pi. 13, f. 33 ; Taylor, Brewsters, Edin. Journ. Sc. 

 1831, V, pp. 34, 36. 



Anabas testudineus, Cuv. Reg. Anim. ; Peters. Monats. Akad. Berlin, 1868, p. 259. 



Anabas scandens, Cuv. and Val. vii, p. 333, pi. 193 and 206 ; Cuv. Eeg. An. 111. Poiss. p. 74, f. 1 ; Swainson, 

 Pishes, ii, p. 237 ; Cantor, Ann. Nat. Hist, iz, p. 28, and Catal. Malay. Fishes, p. 82 ; Richards. Ich. China, 

 p. 250 ; Jerdon, Madr. J. L. and Sc- 1849, p. 144 ; Bleeker, Yerh. Bat. Gen. xxiii, p. 8, and Java, iv, p. 329 ; 

 Gunther, Catal. iii, p. 375; Kner, ISTovara Fische, p. 217; Day, Fish. Malabar, p. 132. 



Anabas spinosus. Gray and Hardw. 111. Indian Zool. pi. 89, f. 1. 



Anabas trifoliatus, Kaup. Wieg. Arch. 1860, p. 124, t. 6, f. A. 



Undee-collee, Mai. ; Pauni-eyri, Tarn. ; Coi, Beng. Assam, and Ooriah ; Nga-pri, Mugh ; Nga-hyays-ma, 

 Bnrm. ; Kavaya or Kawhy-ya, Sing. 



B. vi, D. L?-?o', P- 15, V. 1/5, A. f:}°, C. 17, L. 1. 28-32, L. tr. 3-4 | 9-10, Vert. 10/16, Case. pyl. 0-3. 



Length of head 3j to 3f , of caudal h\ to 6^, height of body 3 to 4 in the total length. Eyes — diameter 

 4| to 5 in length of head, 3/4 to 1 diameter from end of snout, and from If to 2 apart. The greatest width of 

 the head nearly equals its height, or its length excluding the snout. Lower jaw slightly the longer, 

 the maxilla reaches to beneath the middle of the orbit. Preorbital strongly denticulated, the anterior four or 

 five denticulations are directed more or less forwards, and the front one is the longest : posterior edge of opercle, 

 also of sub- and inter- opercles strongly spinate, shoulder scale generally with two or three denticulations. 

 Teeth — villiform in the jaws; with the outer row rather the largest ; a small patch on the front end of 

 the vomer, which are slightly obtusely conical but small, none on the palatines. Fins — the length of the base 

 of the spinous portion of the dorsal fin is 6/6 of that of the length of its entire base, soft portion higher than the 

 spinous. Scales — three entire and two half rows between the lateral-line and the commencement of the base 

 of the dorsal fin, some over soft dorsal, caudal, anal, and base of pectoral. Latei-al-line — ^interrupted about the 

 seventeenth scale. Ccecal appendages — usually three, but I took some specimens in Madras which were destitute 

 of any. Golowrs — rifle green, becoming lightest on the abdomen. During life there are usually four 

 wide vertical body bands, and a dark stripe from the angle of the mouth to the preopercle. The young have a 

 black blotch on the side of the base of the tail, surrounded by a light, sometimes yellow, ring ; usually they 

 have a black spot at the end of the opercle, and sometimes aaiother at the base of the pectoral. 



Variety. — I obtained in the Ganjam district a specimen of this fish of an orange colour, which the 

 fishermen asserted was not an uncommon occurrence and not depending solely upon the water the fish resided 

 in. At the present time, after it has been nearly ten years in spirit, the orange colour is visible. 



Anabas oligolepis, Gunther (? Bleeker) Catal. iii, p. 376, from Ceylon and India, is. considered to differ as 

 having D. ^ V*, ^- 1- 27. I have specimens from India which have only 28 large scales along the lateral-line, 

 and two in the Calcutta Museum have D. y, L. 1. 26, and it appears to me that a regular gradation exists from 

 that number to 32.* 



This fish being extensively employed for stocking ponds, considerable differences are found as 

 to its proportions, the Bengal forms as a rule being rather more elongated than those of Madras. 



Sdbitai — Estuaries and fresh waters of India, Ceylon, and Burma, to the Malay Archipelago and 

 Philippines. The one figured is from Calcutta. They attain at least 8| inches in length. The breeding season 

 is about June and July. 



,.„ . * It is a subject (Jeserving extended -investigation, as. to how far the number of spines and rays of the dorsal and an^l fins 

 differ in each species of Indian fresh water AcanthoiSteiygian fishes. A rather wide latitude exists in Anabas, Polyacanthus, 

 Tnchogaster, Osphromenus, and Ophiocephalus, and- to a lesser extent in Etrophte. The number of scales along the lateral-line seems 

 also to be subject to variation in Polyacantlius, whilst in Ophiocephalus in some the number appears constant between the lateral-line 

 and first dorsal spine (as 0. micropeltes, 0. Stewartii, and 0. gachua), in others inconstant fas 0. maralius, 0. leucopunctatm, and 

 0. sfriatesj.. > .- . / \ 



