1022 Catalogue of Malayan Fishes. [Oct. 



sides of the body ; throat and abdomen white ; anterior dorsal fin 

 white, upper half pale blackish, marbled with white veins ; posterior 

 dorsal, caudal, ventrals and pectorals white ; the rays annulated with 

 pale black ; posterior half of caudal pale blackish with two or three 

 waved vertical white lines ; anal white, each ray with one or two brown 

 dots near the extremity. Iris pale greenish golden, spotted with brown ; 

 pupil black, heart-shaped. 



D 9—11 or 12, C llf, A 12, V 1/5, P. 19, Br. VII. 



Habit. — Sea and estuaries of Pinang. 

 Bombay. 



Total length : 6f inch. 



The length of the head is | of the distance from the muzzle to the 

 root of the caudal ; the latter is \ of that distance. The breadth of 

 the head in front of the eyes exceeds by -| the distance from the muz- 

 zle to the anterior part of the orbit. The raised supraorbital crest is 

 strongly serrated, leaving the upper part of the skull like a narrow fur- 

 row, the breadth of which is scarcely ^ of the vertical diameter of the 

 eye. The upper maxillary teeth form a much broader band than in 

 either P. insidiator or P. clavulatus, and it is but little widened on 

 the intermaxillary bones, on which the teeth are of uniform length, 

 velvety like the rest. The number of spines of the head renders this 

 species conspicuous. It occurs, although not numerously, at all sea- 

 sons at Pinang, and it is eaten by the natives. 



Gen. Scorp^ena, (Artedi) Linne 1748. 



Head large, spinous, filamentous, scaleless, compressed ; eyes placed 

 near each other ; teeth in the jaws, vomer, and palate ; dorsal fin 

 single, anterior part spinous ; branchiostegous rays seven. 

 Scorp^ena picta, Kuhl and Van Hasselt. 



Scorpeena picta, Cuv. and Val. IV. 321. 



Scorpsena picta, Bleeker: Verh. Batav. Gen. XXII. 4. 



Head greenish olive, largely spotted with black, radiating round the 

 orbit ; ground colour of body and fins pale greenish or brownish buff, 

 on the back and sides above the lateral line largely and irregularly 

 marbled with black, which beneath the anterior part of the soft dorsal 

 is continued vertically towards the abdomen ; the latter and the rest 

 of the sides irregularly spotted with brownish black ; spines and fin 

 rays, except the ventral, greenish buff, annulated with brownish black ; 



