640 PHYSOSTOMI. 



Colours— sJlrerj shot -with gold, back rather dark, and edge of caudal stained darkest : a dark spot, which is 

 sometimes absent, on the shoulder. Gill-rahers—closelj set, very numerous and rather shorter than the eye, 

 caudal peduncle as high as long. 



Habitat.— 'Fresh waters of rivers and tanks of Sind and throughout India as far south as the Kistna 

 River, but absent from the Malabar coast and Madras. It attains at least 8 inches in length. 



11. Clupea ilisha, Plate CLXII, fig. 3. 



Clupea, Eussell, ii, p. 77, and Palasah, pi. 198. 



Glupanodon ilisha, Ham. Buoh. Pish. Ganges, pp. 243, 382, pi. 19, f. 73. 



Alausa palasah, Cuv. and Val. xx, p. 432; Cantor, Catal. p. 300; Bleeker, Beng. p. 74; Jerdon, Madr. 

 J. L. and Sc. xv, p. 346, and 1851, p. 145 ; Day, Pishes of Malabar, p. 235. 



Alausa Malayana, Bleeker, Ned. Tyds. Dierk. 1866, p. 294. 



Alausa palasah, Bleeker, Beng. p. 74. 



Clupea palasah, Giinther, Catal. vii, p. 445. 



" Sable fish " and " Hilsa " of Europeans ; Palasah, Tel. ; Pulla, Sind. ; Oolum, Tamil : Nga-tha-louJc, 

 Burmese ; Silsa, Beng. 



B. vi, D. 18-19(tt?t6). P- 15, V. 9, A. 19-22(^?^), C. 19, L. 1. 46-49. L. tr. 17-19, Vert. 12/32-34. 



Length of head 4i to 4^, of caudal 5, height of body 3| to 3f, in the total length. %es— with broad 

 adipose lids, situated some distance before the middle of the length of the head, and from 1 to 1^ diameters 

 from the end of snout, and If apart. The posterior extremity of the maxilla reaches to below the middle el- 

 even hind edge of the orbit : lower jaw not projecting beyond the upper. The greatest width of the opercle 

 equals about 2/3 of its height : sub-opercle rounded posteriorly. Teeth — absent. Fins — dorsal commences a 

 little nearer the snout than the base of the caudal fin, its upper edge concave. Pectoral reaches to above the 

 origin of the ventral, which latter fin is inserted beneath the anterior half of the dorsal. Caudal deeply 

 forked. Caudal peduncle as deep as long. Scales — iu regular rows : many over the caudal fin. GiU-rakers 

 numerous and as long as the eye : 16 to 17 scutes before and 14 to 15 behind the insertion of the ventral fin. 

 Pseudobranchise well developed. Golou/rs — silvery, shot with gold and purple : no spots iu the adult, but a 

 row of them along the upper third of the body in the immature, the most distinct of which is behind the 

 upper third of the opercle. (T have seen them in examples from the Sunderbunds up to 10 inches in length.) 

 The young are usually of a bronze colour along the back, with silvery sides and a burnished silvery band going 

 from above the eye to the upper half of the caudal fin, whilst the caudal fin is often deeply edged with black in 

 its entire circumference. 



The main body of these fish swarm up all the larger rivers of India and Burma, generally as soon as 

 the monsoon commences, whilst an important matter appears to be the rapidity of the current. The 

 numerous Indian rivers spanned by weirs, destitute of fish passes, is causing enormous injury to these 

 fisheries. Almost fruitless to deposit their eggs below these structures when between the sea and their 

 spawning beds, whilst tliey are unable to pass them, their partial or even entire extermination in such rivers 

 appears to be merely a question of time. 



Amongst such rivers as I have personally examined, the following appears to be the periods when these 

 fish most commonly ascend. In the Cauvery and Coleroon of Madras, they pass up with the first burst of the 

 South-west Monsoon (about the first or second week of June), and continue for the succeeding four months but 

 in smaller quantities, some evidently being late breeders, perhaps younger fish. In the Kistna, which has a 

 great velocity, the freshes commence in June, continuing to the end of October, after which the river subsides, 

 although it is not fordable until the middle or end of January : a few of these fishes arrive at the end of 

 September when the strength of the current is subsiding, but it is the middle of October and two following 

 months, that the main body ascends, while they are absent by April. In the neighbouring river, the Godavery, 

 which has a less rapid current, the fish ascend earlier, being most numerous from July to September. In the 

 Hooghly they continue their ascent throughout the South-west Monsoon, continuing to nearly the end of the year. 

 They have been observed in the Irrawaddi in Burma as high as Mandalay, iii October. They are excellent as 

 food until they have deposited their ova, when they become thin and positively unwholesome. Their flavour has 

 been compared to a combination of that of the salmon and herring : they are rather heavy of digestion. 



Habitat. — Persian Gulf ascending the Tigris, the coasts of Sind, India, and Burma, passing up the large 

 rivers to breed, also the Malay Archipelago. I have taken them as high as Delhi, and Hamilton Buchanan 

 records them from Agra and Cawnpore. 



12. Clupea kanagurta, Plate CLXII, fig. 4. 



Clupea, Russell, Fish. Yizag. ii, p. 75, and Keelee, pi. 195. 



Clupeonia Blochii, Cuv. and Val. xx, p. 353 ; Bleeker, Beng. p. 74. 



Alosa hanagmta, Bleeker, Haring. p. 34, Beng. p. 74, and Atl. Ich. vi, p. 114, t. 265, f. 5. 



Alosa chapra, Giinther, Pish. Zanz. p. 123 (not Gray). 



