1008 Catalogue of Malayan Fishes. [Oct. 



Polynemus tetradactylus, Richardson, Report 1845, 218. 

 Polynemus tetradactylus, Bleeker : Verh. Batav. Gen. XXII. 



24, 57. 

 Ikan Salangan, ' Sinanghi/ or * Salanghi' of the Malays, 



Head silvery ; back and sides silvery green ; the latter beneath the 

 lateral line, silvery ; abdomen white ; pectoral, ventral and anal fins 

 gamboge or pale orange ; dorsals and caudal greyish, minutely dotted 

 with black, their margins broad blackish ; filaments white ; iris silvery, 

 metallic green at the upper part of the orbit. 



D 8 or 9—1/14 or 15, C 17f, A 3 or 4/15 or 16, V 1/5, P 17, Fila- 

 ments 4, Br. VII. 



Habit. — Sea of Pinang, Singapore, Malayan Peninsula, Lancavy. 

 Bay of Bengal, Gangetic estuaries ; Australia, China, Ban- 

 tam, Batavia, Tjilatjap, Samarang, Surabaya, Bangkallang. 



Total length : 4 feet. 



It is highly valued as an article of food, its flavour being compared 

 with that of salmon. In the Straits of Malacca single individuals 

 occur at all seasons, but it is there not numerous as it is in the Bay 

 of Bengal, and the Gangetic estuaries, nor of such gigantic dimensions 

 as Buchanan Hamilton describes it to attain in the latter locality. Some 

 individuals which in 1837 were observed in the Bay of Bengal, and 

 by the native fishermen denominated Salliah or Saccolih, I was induced 

 to consider as belonging to a distinct, although closely allied species, 

 (P, salliah.) as they all agreed in presenting one dorsal, and two 

 anal-spines more than were attributed to P. tetradactylus. The fol- 

 lowing is the number of fin-rays given by the different describers : 

 Russell : D 8 — 1/14, C 22 ? A 1/16, V 1/5, P 1 7. 



Buchanan : D 8—1/14, C 15-f, A 2/15, V 1/5, P 17. 



Cuv. and Val. : D 8—1/15, C 17, A 1/16, V 1/5, P 17. 



The first anal spine is very minute, and as well as the succeeding one 

 or two almost hid by scales, particularly in larger individuals. Al- 

 though the figure of this species in Buchanan Hamilton's duplicate 

 drawings represents the anal fin with four spines and fifteen rays, his 

 description gives but 2/15. The length of the filaments is liable to 

 individual variation, and in the adult they are comparatively shorter 

 than in the young. Normally the two posterior are the longest, 

 equalling the length of the head ; the first is but § of the fourth. 



