1186 Catalogue of Malayan Fishes. [Nov. 



Habit. — Sea of Pinang, Singapore. 

 Bay of Bengal. 



Total length : 9 inches. 



The body and fins are covered with small, closely set, bipartite spines 

 which rise vertically from the skin. The lateral line is composed of 

 larger somewhat distant spines, each terminating in 6 to 9 points ; 

 it commences from the muzzle, proceeds in an arch above the eye and 

 continues following the slope of the back towards the posterior part of 

 the second dorsal. A second, rather indistinct line of distant, larger 

 spines is observed on the upper half of the upper jaw, and a third 

 similar marks externally the posterior margin of the opercle. Here 

 and there on the body, but particularly towards the anterior part of 

 the abdomen, appear some short fleshy filaments. The larger individual 

 was observed at Singapore in May 1840, a second, 4 inches in length, at 

 Pinang in 1845. The stomach is conical, very capacious, occupying 

 the entire length of the lower part of the expansible abdominal cavity ; 

 the coats are very thick, leathery ; the internal surface with numerous 

 irregular folds. The duodenum, the widest of the intestines, receives the 

 elongated ductus coledochus at a distance of about f inches from pylo- 

 rus. The length of the intestinal canal is double that of the fish. The 

 liver is very voluminous, elongated ; the gall bladder is like a pea, half 

 imbedded in the liver ; the spleen very minute. The air-vessel large, 

 oval ; the coats very thick. 



Antennarius commersoni, (Lacepede). 



RenardI.Pl.43, 212? 



Lophius commersonii, Lacepede I. 327. 



Lacepede I. PI. 14, Fig. 3 ? 



Chironectes commersonii, Cuvier z Mem. du Mus. III. 431, PI. 18, 



Fig. 1. 



Chironectes commersonii, Cuv. and Val. XII. 426. 



Bluish black. On the back, above the lateral line, and in front of 

 the first articulated ray an oblique rose-coloured oval spot, within 

 which a black ring ; at the root of the caudal, above and below two 

 similar smaller spots, and one on the side between the pectoral and 

 anal fins. First very slender dorsal ray alternately rose-coloured and 

 black, the tuft of filaments rather full, blackish grey. Rays of the 

 dorsal, anal, pectoral and ventral fins black, the membranes inky with 

 a rather broad sub-marginal rose-coloured band, edged with black. 



