1849.] Catalogue of Malayan Fishes. 1261 



D 15, C 19|, A 11, V 11, P 16, Br. IV. 



Habit. — Sea of Pinang, Malayan Peninsula. 

 Vizagapatam, Madras. 



Total length : 2 feet. 



The length of the head is 5£ in the total ; but in the very young 4|. 

 The depth at occiput is f of the length of the head. The eye, bordering 

 upon the profile, is situated a little in front of the second third of the 

 head. The horizontal diameter is 3| in the length of the head. The 

 distance across the forehead slightly exceeds the diameter. The thick 

 adipose fold has a circular pupillary opening. In the young the eye is 

 comparatively larger, the horizontal diameter slightly exceeding ^ of 

 the head. The symphysis of the lower jaw carries a small rounded 

 tubercle fitting into a corresponding notch of the upper, behind which 

 is suspended a narrow crescent-shaped membrane. The small tongue 

 is elongated and immoveable. The greatest vertical diameter, in front 

 of the dorsal, is a little less than the length of the head. The deepest 

 portion of the body is covered by 26 longitudinal scries of scales ; the 

 first six to eight scales of each series, above as well as beneath the 

 lateral line, are indeed somewhat larger than all the rest, but the size 

 gradually decreases, and not abruptly, as represented in the figure of 

 Russell. The latter is also incorrect in confining the larger and striated 

 scales to the space above the lateral line, and the number of the longitu- 

 dinal series is incorrect. The lateral line, composed of simple central 

 tubes, declines towards the termination of the pectoral, from whence it 

 continues straight on the thirteenth longitudinal series of scales to the 

 middle of the caudal. It occupies 77 scales. The dorsal fin com- 

 mences exactly in the middle between the muzzle and the root of the 

 longest ray of the upper caudal lobe. The first three rays are undi- 

 vided and gradually increase in length ; the fourth, the longest, is f of 

 the length of the head. The upper margin of the fin is crescent-shaped, 

 the last ray being elongated and nearly double the length of the penulti- 

 mate. The base is enclosed between two series of elongated, obliquely 

 set scales, of which there are thirteen on each side, gradually increasing 

 in length so as to cover the lower half of the posterior rays. The 

 caudal is deeply cleft, the lobes are 3£ in the total length ; in one indi- 

 vidual the upper slightly exceeded the lower. The vertical diameter 

 of the tail at the root of the caudal, is about § of the length of the 



