FAMILY, I— SILURID^. 445 



Veiy closely allied to Jf. aor, and chiefly distinguished by its much shorter maxillary barbels. 

 EaUM.-The Indus* salt ranges of the Punjaub, Jumna and Ganges certainly as low as Delhi, also 

 the Deccan, Kistna nver to its termination, and Assam. It attains a considerable size. 



4. Macrones Blythii. 

 Batasio affinis, Blyth, J. A. S. of Beng. 1860, p. 190 (not Bagus affinis, Jerdon, 1849 ) 

 Macrones affimds, Gunther, Catal. v, p. 83; Day, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, p. 111. 

 D. II 0, P. 1/7, V. 6, A. 12 (f), C. 17. 



Length of head nearly 6, of pectoral 6, of caudal 6, height of body 5 in the total length. Eyes— 

 diameter 3^ m the length of head, 1 diameter from end of snout and li apart. Snout projecting. Median 

 longitudmal groove on head indistinct, but re3,ching the base of the occipital process, which is narrow twice as 

 long as wide at its base, and separated from the basal bone of the dorsal fin by an interneural shield. Ba/rbels— 

 the maxillary which are the longest only reach the anterior margin of the orbit. Teeth— in an uninterrupted 

 crescentic band across the palate. Fins— dorsal spine moderately strong, slightly serrated posteriorly in its 

 upper fourth and rather above half the length of the head. Pectoral spine, slightly longer and stronger than 

 that of the dorsal, and denticulated internally. Adipose dorsal commences not far from the hind edge of the 

 first dorsal whilst its base is a little longer than that of the anal. Caudal forked, the lobes of nearly equal 

 length. Coloms—a. dark spot on the shoulder, a second on the base of the adipose dorsal fin : body with 

 indistiuct cross bands. 



HaStiai.— Tenasserim provinces from whence one specimen 3-5 inches long was sent to the Calcutta 

 Museum. 



5. Macrones gulio, Plate XCIX, fig. 2. 

 Pimelodms gulio, Ham. Buch. Pish. Ganges, pp. 201, 379, pi. 23, f. 66. 



Bagrus albilabrus, fuscus (mandibular barbels black) and Bwmamms, Cuv. and Val. xiv, pp. 416, 417, 419. 

 Bagrus gulio, Cuv. and Val. xiv, p. 618 ; Bleeker, Beng. en Hind. p. 116, and Prod. Silur. p. 163 ; Blyth 

 P. A. S. of Beng. 1858, p 284. f > :/ ' 



Bagrus ahhreviatus, (Kuhl. and v. Hass.) Cuv. and Val. xiv, p. 428 ; Cantor, Catal. p. 254. 

 Bagrus albilahris, Jerdon, M. J. L. and Sc. 1849, p. 338. 



Bagrus gulioides, melas, SchlegeUi, and rhodopterygi/us, Bleeker, Silur. Batav. pp. 24, 25. 

 Aspidobagrus gulio, Bleeker, Atl. Ich. Silur. p. 60, t. 74, f. 2. 

 Macrones gulio, Giinther, Catal. v, p. 79. 

 Nwia tenggara, Beng. 



B. ix, D. i I 0, P. 1/8-9, V. 6. A. 12-15 (/^,-), C. 17. 



Length of head 4i to 4|, of caudal 4J, height of body 5 to 5i in the total length. Myes — diameter 5 to- 

 6 in the length of head, 1^ diameters from the end of snout, and 2 diameters apart. Snout broad and slightly 

 depressed, upper jaw somewhat the longer. Greatest width of head equals its length excluding the snout, 

 and one-fourth broader than high. Upper surface of the head granulated, its median longitudinal groove 

 lanceolate, extending to opposite the hind edge of the orbit. Occipital process rounded posteriorly and half 

 longer than wide at its base, a considerable interspacef between it and the basal bone of the dorsal fin. 

 Ba/rbels — nasal shorter than the head, the maxillary reach to the middle or nearly the end of the 

 ventral fin, the external mandibular are longer than the head or than the internal ones. TeetTi — in a 

 narrow, uninterrupted crescentic band across the palate. Fvns — dorsal spine half as long as the head, 

 strong, anteriorly with one or two teeth at its upper extremity, serrated posteriorly. Anterior rays longer 

 than the spine. Adipose dorsal with a short base equalling about half of the interspace between the two 

 fins. Pectoral does not reach the ventral, its spine is as long' as the head excluding the snout, strong, and 

 denticulated internally. Ventral arises on the vertical behind the last dorsal ray and does not reach the anal. 

 Upper caudal lobe the longer, inferior one sometimes rounded. Air-vessel — heart shaped, divided along its 

 centre by a strong partition, having a communicating orifice in its upper back part, whilst the whole has 

 many subdivisions internally. Colowrs — lurid bluish-brown on the back becoming dull white beneath, fins 

 especially on their outer halves, usually black : maxillary barbels mostly blacky those from fresh waters 

 sometimes have them whitish or white-tipped.. 



As in the rest of the genus Macrones the ova in this species are small. Some specimens from the 

 Hooghly have 11 branched anal rays, and the maxillary barbels only reach the end of the pectoral fin. 



Habitat. — Seas, estuaries, and tidal waters from Sind and Bombay, throughout India and Burma to the 

 Malay Archipelago. There are stufied specimens in the Calcutta Museum 18 inches in length. 



6. Macrones punctatus, Plate C, fig 3. 

 Bagrus punctatus, Jerdon, M. J. L. and Sc. 1849, p. 339. 



• Gunther records " c. Half grown. Afghanistan. From Mr. Griffith's collection." This may be an error. The specimen 

 ■was perhaps the one sent, as PimelodMS aor, by McClelland (see Cal. J. N. H. ii, p. 475) to the India Office, and he observed " Pimehdus 

 aor, Buch. has been found also by Griffith to be one of the characteristic fishes of the ludus, as well as of the Ganges above 

 Seharunpore, but disappears in Afghanistan," p. 568. 



t This interspace appears to be absent in the immature, bat increases with age. 



