662 



PHTSOSTOMI. 



Family, VII— CHIROOENTRIDiE. 



Pseudobranchise absent. Body much elongated and compressed. Margin of upper jaw formed by the 

 premaxillaries mesially, and the maxillaries laterally. Opercular apparatus complete. Barbels absent. A 

 single rayed dorsal fin belonging to the caudal portion of the vertebral column. Body with thm, deciduous 

 scales. Stomach with a blind sac: intestinal canal short.* No pyloric appendages. Air-vessel present. 

 Branchiostegal rays 8. 



Only one genus is known of this family which is confined to the Red Sea, and those of India to the Malay 

 Archipelago. Bleeker placed this family amongst his Olufpeoidei, and next to the group Dusswmieriformes. 



Genus, 1 — Chieocinteus, Guvier. 

 BranoMostegals eight. Abdomen with a sharp hut not serrated margin. Gill-membranes wiited for a short 

 distance : gill-opening wide. Eyes subcutaneous. Oleft of mouth oblique and_ deep : the lower jaw the longer. A 

 row of cardnes in the mandible, and a horizontal pair in the premaxillaries : mimmte teeth on the palatines, 

 pterygoids, and tongue. A single short dorsal fin placed far bachwards opposite to alorig wnal : an elongated osseous 

 appendage in the axilla : ventrals very small. Scales thin, smalj,, and deciduous. Air-vessel cellular. 



SYNOPSIS OP INDIVIDUAL SPECIES. 



I. Chirocentrus dorab, D. 16-17, A. 31-36. Eed Sea, seas of India to the Malay Archipelago and 

 beyond. 



1. Chirocentrus dorab, Plate CLXVI, fig. 3. 



Clupea dorab, Forsk. p. 72, No. 108 ; Gmel. Lia. p. 1409 ; Russell, Fish. Vizag. ii, 78, and Wahlah, pi. 

 199 ; Lacep. v, p. 458. 



Esox chirocentrus, Lacep. t, p. 317, t. 8, f. 1. 



Ohpea dentex, Bl. Schn. p. 428. 



Chirocentrus dorab, Riippell, N. W. Pische, p. 81 ; Cuv. and Val. xix, p. 150, pi. 565 ; Richard. Ich. 

 China, p. 311 ; Bleeker, Ghiroc. p. 10, and Atl. Ich. vi, p. 92, t. 271, f . 3 ; Cantor, Catal. p. 277 ; Jerdon, M. J. 

 L. and Sc. 1851, p. 146. ; Day, Fishes of Malabar, p. 223 ; Kner, Novara Fische, p. 340 ; Gunther, Cat. vii, 

 p. 475 ; Klunz. Fische Roth. Meer. Verb. z. b. Ges. Wien, 1871, p. 606. 



Chirocentrus vmdus, Swainson, Fishes, ii, p. 294. 



Chirocentrus hypselosoma, Bleeker, Singap. p. 71, Chiroc. p. 25, and Atl. Ich. vi, p. 93, t. 269, f. 3. 



Mooloo-alley and Kiru-wahlah, Tam. : Wahlah, Tel. : Kunda, Ooriah. 



B. viii, D. 16-17(TTiT3)> P- 14-15, V. 6-7, A. 31-36(37?3^), C. 19. 



Length of head 6i to 7^, of caudal 6^, height of body 6f to 9 in the total length. Eyes — diameter 

 41 in length of head, 1/2 of a diameter apart, and 2/3 to 1 diameter from end of snout. Upper lip terminating 

 anteriorly in a short mesial flap. Lower jaw the longer. The maxilla reaches to below the hind edge of the 

 eye. Teeth — one pair of long, sharp, straight and approximating ones exist near the centre of the premaxillaries, 

 the remainder of which, and the whole extent of the maxilla, is armed with sharp straight teeth of irregular 

 lengths, and becoming smaller at the posterior extremity of the jaw. Each mandible has a row of about 12 

 sharp laterally compressed teeth, of which the two first are the shortest, and those most anterior have an 

 oblique anterior direction, while the posterior ones gradually become directed more and more backwards until the 

 last form an acute angle with the jaw. Five or six large card-like teeth on the palatine bones, and a small 

 oval group of velvety ones on the pterygoid. Fins — the ventral commences midway between the end of the 

 snout and the base of the caudal : the dorsal is in about the posterior third of the body, above the anal. Along 

 the whole extent of the lower margin of the abdomen are short hair-like rays. Scales — small and deciduous. 

 Lateral-line — indistinctly marked. Air-vessel - small, elongated and cellular. Colours — ^bluish-green along the 

 back : silvery on the sides and abdomen. 



Bleeker considered the above to consist of two species, C. dorab, height of body 7, length of head 6 ia 

 its length without the caudal fin, and scales smaller than in C. hypselosoma, the latter having, height of body 

 5;^, length of head 6f in its length without the caudal fin. 



Habitat. — Red Sea, through the seas of India to the Malay Archipelago and beyond. It attains at least 

 12 feet in length. When captured it bites at everything near it. 



* Themucons membrane of the intestinal canal has been said to have spiral folds, a, character usually attributed to the highest 

 class of fish. Having carefully examined the anatomy of a fine specimen in a good state of preservalion, I do not find this to exist. 

 The mucous membrane is puckered into longitudinal folds, but there is no trace of a spiral one in the single example examined 



