ON THE ICHTHYOLOGY OF THE SEAS OF CHINA AND JAPAN. 307 



jaw to the end of the anal. The short trunk of the tail behind this fin is slender, and the 

 caudal is forked like the tail of a swallow with long tapering lobes, the lower one being con- 

 siderably the longest. The dorsal terminates just over the anus, and the belly is most pro- 

 minent opposite to it. The intermaxillaries are short, lie transversely at the end of the snout, 

 and are armed with a single row of very short subulate teeth. The maxillary has a broad 

 disc, whose width exceeds half its length, and whose end reaches to the articulation of the 

 lower jaw. It is shaped like the valve of a wide Pinna, and its fore shoulder only enters into 

 the composition of the orifice of the mouth. Its under edge, which lies on the limb of the 

 lower jaw, is toothed. The point of the lower jaw projects beyond the intermaxillaries. Eye 

 large, near the profile. About fifty scales enter into a row extending from the gill-opening 

 to the caudal, and there are fourteen rows in the height. The belly is strongly serrated by 

 fourteen teeth before the ventrals and thirteen behind them. The anal is long and low. 



The scales are very silvery and are tinged on the back by brownish purple-red, and lower 

 down by a very pale cream colour. The jaws are siskin-green ; there is a purple blotch on 

 the under part of the preorbitar and a greenish-gray one over the eye. Fins cream-yellow, 

 the vertical ones having also blackish-gray borders. Seven branchial rays are shown in the 

 figure. Their number cannot be made out in the specimen*. 



Hab. Chinese sea. 



Icon. Reeves, 67 ; Hardw. Malac. 240, is a smaller drawing than the figure of abnormis, 

 but exhibits no other difference in form than a slightly shorter and less pointed pectoral. The 

 back is shaded with pale leek-green instead of brown, and the purplish tints of the head are 

 more extended, but the prevalence of the silvery lustre is so great that there is no striking 

 difference in the colours of the drawings. Length of the figure 14 inches. Number 241 in 

 Hardwicke's 'Malacopterygii' is a drawing of a species captured at Penang, which has a higher 

 shoulder and smaller ventrals than abnormis, but otherwise much resembles it. 



Chatoessus aquosus, Richardson. Icon. Reeves, 63; Hardw. Malac. 230. 



Chinese name, Shwuy hwa, " Slipping in the water " (Birch) ; Shwuy 



hwti, " Watery bone" (Reeves) ; Shui wot (Bridgem. Chrest. 89). Bad. 



D. 18; A. 23; C. 19J-; P. 15; V. 8. (Spec. Br. Mus.) Length 7f inches. 



Mr. Reeves has deposited in the British Museum a dried specimen of this fish numbered 

 in accordance with his figure. Its form is symmetrical, the curve of the back corresponding 

 with that of the belly. The height of the body is greatest in front of the dorsal and ven- 

 trals, which are opposite to each other, and is contained thrice and three-quarters in the total 

 length. The upper jaw projects beyond the lower one, and the intermaxillaries form two- 

 thirds of the upper lip. The maxillaries are oblong, but taper towards their articulating ends. 

 They reach backwards as far as the anterior third of the eye : the articulation of the lower 

 jaw is under the posterior third. The eye has an elliptical iris, placed vertically like that of 

 a feline animal. There are forty-six scales in a longitudinal row, exclusive of three or four 

 smaller ones on the base of the caudal, and thirteen or fourteen rows in the height of the body. 

 The keeled belly is armed by thirteen spinous teeth behind the ventrals, and by about fifteen 

 before them ; but the latter are nearly obsolete. The ventrals are rather before the middle 

 of the length, caudal excluded. The upper parts are leek-green with silvery edges to the 

 scales, and the lower parts silvery and pearl-gray, with a crimson blush. Caudal and anal 

 oil-green. Dorsal and ventrals pale oil-green, the former tipped with carmine. Pectorals 

 yellow. There are some blue and carmine tints on the head. 



This fish approaches the CI. nasus, Bl. 429, f. 1, in form, but does not agree exactly either 

 with that figure or the Kome of Russell, 19G, and there is a difference in the numbers of the 

 fin-rays. 



Hab. Chinese sea. 



Chatoessus triza, Linn. Amcen. Acad.Chinens. Lagerstr. No. 30, An. 1754? 

 (Clupea). Icon. Reeves, 224; Hardw. Malac. 232. Chinese name, 

 Yen yaou tin, " Silver-waisted scale" (Birch); Yen yaou lin, "Silver- 

 scaled waist" (Reeves). Length of the figure 9£ inches. 

 Mr. Reeves observes that the nose of this fish, when recent, was as transparent as glass, 

 and that he suspects some mistake in the characters of the Chinese name. It is not easy to 

 identify one among several species closely resembling each other with the short account given 

 of triza in the 'Amcen. Acad.,' but this figure corresponds most nearly with the characters 

 enumerated by Linnaeus. The C. thrissa of Osbeck has more rays in the dorsal. In form 

 triza approaches the CI. thrissa of Bloch, 404, but the back is more arched and the anal 



* Russell enumerates six in his species. 



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