1849.] Catalogue of Malayan Fishes. 1099 



slightly pointed scales, like those of the body ; the rest of the head is 

 naked. The eight free dorsal spines are all directed backwards ; each 

 is attached to its groove by a small triangular membrane. The anterior 

 ray of the dorsal and anal fins is shorter than the second, and not 

 branched like all the succeeding. The lateral line proceeds nearly 

 straight towards the termination of the pectorals from whence it gently 

 declines, keeping the middle of the body, and terminating a little in 

 front of the posterior margin of the caudal. It makes several slight 

 undulations, and the anterior portion is sometimes found double, the 

 one above the other. The length of the caudal fin is \ of the total ; the 

 posterior margin is straight, vertical. The pectoral is a little falcated ; 

 the length \ of the total, nearly double the length of the ventrals. 

 The stomach is an elongated muscular sac ; at some distance from the 

 pylorus appears a ccecum, nearly as long as the stomach, from the 

 side of which proceed a number of short processes, each terminating 

 in many minute branches, all forming a countless mass of cceca. The 

 intestinal canal makes a single circumvolution : its length is about ^ 

 of the total. The liver is elongated, single-lobed. The gall-bladder 

 is reduced to a narrow tube. The spleen is small triangular., There 

 is no air-vessel. In several dissected the stomach contained fishes 

 (Clupeoid<z) and Loligo. Single individuals occur at all seasons at 

 Pinang. They are eaten by the natives. 



Gen. Chorinemus, Cuv. and Vol. 1831.* 



Body oblong, compressed ; no keel in front of the caudal fin ; ante- 

 rior dorsal fin consisting of singly moveable spines, each with a small 

 membrane ; the first of these spines preceded by an immoveable one,f 

 more or less hid in the skin and pointing forwards ; rays of the second 

 dorsal and anal fin either entirely detached, or united by a mem- 

 brane so brittle, as to easily disappear, and make the rays resemble 

 spurious fins ; two free spines, resembling those of the anterior dorsal, 

 behind the anus. 



* Substituted for Scomberoides, Lacep&de, 1800. 



f As the immoveable spine is rarely perceptible except in very young individu- 

 als, it will not be given in the formulas of the dorsal fins, but special mention will 

 be made of it. 



