1849.] Catalogue of Malayan Fishes, 1137 



Head above and back greenish lead coloured, paler on the sides 

 towards the lateral line ; rest of the body silvery satin ; above the 

 lateral line one or two longitudinal series of more or less distinct, 

 rounded, lead coloured spots ; beneath the lateral line two similar 

 series ; jaws, cheeks and opercles shining silvery ; dorsal pale olive 

 greyish, minutely dotted with black ; caudal silvery at the base, rest 

 yellowish white, minutely dotted with black ; anal silvery white ; ven- 

 trals white ; first, elongated ray, silvery at the base, rest blackish ; 

 pectorals hyaline ; lips blackish ; tongue, and internal surface of the 

 mouth dotted with black. Iris silvery, orbital margin blackish. 



D 4/43, C 17f, A 31, V 1/5, P 16, Br. VII. 



Habit. — Sea ofPinang, 



Java, Coromandel, Japan. 



Total length : 5 inch. 



The length of the head is 3 J in the total to the centre of the poste- 

 rior margin of the caudal, with the muzzle protracted it is 2f . The 

 diameter of the eye is 3^ in the length of the head. The teeth are 

 excessively minute, velvety : in the upper jaw their narrow linear band 

 suddenly widens towards the angle of the mouth. In the space be- 

 tween the interparietal and the interspinal crest, in front of the dorsal 

 fin, appear in succession three small flattened, lancet-shaped ossicles. 

 The greatest vertical diameter of the body, in front of the dorsal fin, 

 is a little less than f of the total length. In a solitary individual, ob- 

 served in August 1845 at Pinang, the lateral line presents the follow- 

 ing appearance. The short anterior part, consisting of three rather 

 large tubes, rises nearly vertically, when it turns backwards under a 

 nearly right angle, and proceeds very close to the back towards the 

 origin of the dorsal, where it suddenly disappears. A similar line, but 

 formed of much smaller tubes, commences on the upper fifth of the 

 back, opposite the eighth dorsal ray, and proceeds, deviating a little 

 obliquely upwards, to the thirty-first dorsal ray, where it suddenly 

 terminates. The length of the first ventral ray is 2\ in the total 

 length. The pectoral rays are remarkably broad, compressed, parti- 

 cularly the second which resembles the blade of a sabre. 



