1068 Catalogue of Malayan Fishes, [Oct. 



fin. The scales are rather large, higher than long ; the anterior mar- 

 gin is straight with 21 strise, the posterior rounded, ciliate ; aline 

 from the gill-opening to the caudal fin contains 32 ; the greatest verti- 

 cal diameter presents 10. Of the six branchiostegous rays the upper 

 one is longer and broader than the rest ; the fifth and sixth are rounded, 

 setaceous. (Esophagus is voluminous, short, suddenly widening into 

 the rounded capacious stomach. The intestinal canal is doubled upon 

 itself, about \ of the length of the fish. Neither ccecopyloric append- 

 ages nor air-vessel appear. The liver is elongated of a reddish yellow. 

 The skeleton has 28 vertebrae of which 10 are abdominal. The 

 branchial labyrinth (Plate II. Fig. 2.) is still more reduced than it is 

 in Macropodus viridi-auratus, Lacep. and almost as simple as in Spi- 

 robranchus capensis, Cuv. (Cuv. Val. VII. 392, Pis. 200 and 205.) It 

 consists of a single backwards bent lamina, and a very small posterior 

 rudimentary one. At the foot of the hills at Pinang this species is 

 numerous in rivulets. Like the rest of the family it is capable of living 

 for sometime out of water. The Siamese inhabitants with whom this 

 species is a great favourite, keep these fishes in jars with water, where 

 the larva of musquitoes is their food, and denominate them " Pla hat"* 

 i. e. the fighting fish, although they live peaceably together. The 

 real fish however, the exhibition of whose combats is a popular amuse- 

 ment with the Siamese, appears to be a variety of the present species, 

 produced by artificial means, like the varieties of the golden carp of China. 



Macropodus pugnax, Var. 



Plate II. Fig. 4. 

 Pla kat of the Siamese. 

 Head above and back dark greenish olive, lighter on the sides, the 

 lower part of which and the abdomen deep blood red ; all the scales 

 edged with black ; a black longitudinal band from the eye to behind 

 the dorsal fin, a second from the nostrils, through the iris to the root 

 of the caudal ; a third from below the eye obliquely downwards to the 

 gill-opening ; dorsal membrane silvery greenish brown, with numerous 

 black undulating lines, vertically intersecting the black rays ; caudal 



■* Pla, fish ; kat, a fighter. The Variety is noticed by Lieut. Colonel Jas. Low, 



