FAMILY, VI— CLUPEID^. 637 



Length, of head 5 to b^, of caudal SJ to 6, height of body 5i to 6 in the total length. Eyes — with 

 broad adipose lids, diameter 3J to 4 in the length of the head, 1 diameter from end of snout, and 3/4 to 4/5 of 

 a diameter apart. Dorsal and abdominal profiles equally and slightly convex. The maxilla reaches to below 

 the front edge of the eye. Opercle more than twice as high as wide. Teeth — in lower jaw, the palatines and 

 pterygoids, and along the centre of the tongue, but none on the vomer. Fms — dorsal commences rather nearer 

 the base of the caudal fin than the end of the snout. Ventral inserted beneath the second fourth of the dorsal. 

 Pectoral as long as the head excluding the snout. Length of base of anal not qujte equal to 1/2 the length of 

 the head. Scales— -with indistinct transverse striae, and rough edges: scutes badly developed, about 32 in 

 number. Colours — bluish green superiorly, becoming silvery white on the sides and beneath : sometimes a 

 brownish mark on the shoulder. A longitudinal band along the body, with from 13 to 20 intensely blue 

 spots. 



Sahitai. — Ceylon, to the Malay Archipelago. 



5. Clupea longiceps, Plate CLXI, fig 2. 



Sardinella longiceps, Cuv. and Val. xx, p. 273. 



Alosa scombrina, Cuv. and Val. xx, p. 442 ; Bleeker, Beng. p. 74 ; Day, Pish. Mai. p. 236. 

 Sardinella lemuru, Bleeker, Nat. Tyds. Ned. Ind. iv, p. 500. 

 Sardinella Neohowii, Day, Fish. Malabar, p. 230 (not C. V.) 

 Glwpea longiceps, Griinther, Catal. vii, p. 428. 



Clwpea lemm-u, Giinther, 1. c. p. 430 ; Bleeker, Atl. Ich. vi, p. 108, t. 267, f. 1. 

 Clupea scombrina, Giinther, 1. c. p. 448. 



Lee-gur, Belooch. ; Loiiar, Sind. ; Mutthi, Canarese and North Malabar ; Charlay, South Malabar, " Oil 

 Sardine." 



B. vi, D. 16-17 (ts'-ti:), ?• 17, V. 9, A. 14-16(y^?y^), C. 17, L. 1. 45-48, L. tr. 13. 



Length of head SJ to 4, of caudal 6, height of body 5 to 5j in the total length. The greatest height of 

 the head equals its length behind the centre of the eye. Eyes — with broad adipose lids, diameter 4|^ to 6 in 

 the length of head, li diameters apart, and 1 to li from end of snout. Lower jaw slightly the longer, the 

 maxilla reaches to beneath the first 1/3 or centre of the eye. Opercle twice as high as wide. Teeth — fine ones 

 on the tongue, very deciduous ones on palatines and more rarely on the pterygoids, very minute or absent from 

 the lower jaw : none on the vomer. Fins — dorsal commences rather nearer the snout than the base of the 

 caudal fin, its upper edge concave, its last two rays short. Pectoral as long as the postorbital portion of the head : 

 ventral inserted in a line rather behind the middle of the dorsal. Anal low, the length of its base not quite 1/2 

 that of the head : its last two rays thickened and rather elongated. Caudal forked. Scales — indistinctly crennlated 

 on the outer edge, and regularly arranged : 13 rows before the base of the dorsal fin : about 18 badly- 

 developed scutes before and 13 or 14 behind the base of the ventral fin. Gill-rakers very numerous,about 1/2 longer 

 than the eye. Golowrs — bluish along the back with golden reflections, abdomen silvery shot with purple, and 

 sometimes a golden line divides the colour of the back from that of the sides : head of the same colour as the 

 body, with a large greenish gold spot on the upper margin of the opercle and preopercle : dorsal greenish : 

 caudal stained with green, the other fins transparent. 



Dr. Bleeker having given me an excellent example of his C. lemuru, I could find no external difference 

 between it and the Malabar oil sardine. The former however was said to have narrow bands of minute teeth 

 on the tongue, palatine, and pterygoid bones, and such were visible in the example I received. The Clupea 

 scombrina, C. V., was stated by Valenciennes and Giinther to have no teeth on the tongue or palate, whereas I 

 observed (0. Neohowii) that such existed in Malabar examples. I have since returned to Malabar and examined 

 some hundreds of these fishes respecting this question, and in some examples certainly I was unable to see 

 palatines and pterygiod teeth. Curiously the British Museum specimen (skin, preserved by myself )exammed by 

 Dr. Giinther showed no palatine teeth ; another example preserved the same day has no pterygoid but only a 

 narrow strip of palatine teeth. On the Coromandel coast the palatine teeth become more distmct (C. longiceps), 

 and according to Bleeker, would seem to be invariably present in examples from the Malay Archipelago. 



Eai)itat.—^\uA, down the Western coast of India, more rarely on the Eastern, Ceylon, the Andamans to 

 the Malay Archipelago, where Bleeker observed G. lemuru. They attain about 8 inches m length, and large 

 quantities of oil are made from them in Malabar ; but along the Coronaandel coast they never appear to arrive 

 in sufficient quantities, whilst those that come are rarely fat as in Malabar. Abundant m some years, they 

 occasionally forsake their haunts for several consecutive seasons, returning again in enormous quantities. 



J, — Teeth on tongues and palatines, none on pterygoids or vomer. 

 6. Clupea flmbriata, Plate CLXI, fig. 3. 



Earengus minor Indicus, Russell, Fish. Vizag. ii, p. 70, and Kowal, pi. 186. 

 ? Glwpea kowal, Riippell, N. W. Pische, p. 79 ; Klunz. Fish. Roth. Meer, 1871, p. 599. _ 

 Spratella fimbriata, Cuv. and Val. xx, p. 359, t. 600 ; Bleeker, Beng. p. 74, and Haring. p. 27 ; Kner,. 

 Novara Pische, p. 329 ; Day, Fish. Malabar, p. 233. 



Kowala Iwuta, Cantor, Catal. Mai. Pish, p. 270. 



