1849.] Catalogue of Malayan Fishes. 12/5 



extends to opposite the posterior margin of the orbit ; the length is \ 

 of that of the head, the breadth § of the diameter of the eye ; the 

 upper extremity is obliquely truncated, the lower forms a rather long, 

 slightly backwards arched point. The lower jaw projects a little 

 beyond the upper, which the branches equal in breadth, but they are 

 shorter. The teeth of both jaws are very minute and placed in a 

 single series ; the rest are velvety or like a fine file. The mouth is 

 small ; the tongue free, flattened, oval. The opercle is triangular with 

 the posterior extremity rounded or less pointed than in P. tartoore. 

 The preopercle is narrower, and scarcely broader than the arched sub- 

 opercle and interopercle, which two latter are proportionally broader in 

 the present species. The branchiostegous membrane is small ; its two 

 anterior rays short and slender ; the posterior four broad and flattened. 

 The profile of the head is concave, rising to a little behind the occiput, 

 from whence the back gently declines towards the root of the caudal. 

 The abdominal arch continues increasing towards the root of the anal, 

 from whence the profile gradually ascends. The greatest diameter of 

 the body, at the root of the pectorals, slightly exceeds \ of the total 

 length ; at the occiput it is £ ; at the root of the caudal it is about ^ 

 of the length of the head. The lateral line commences high up from 

 the supra-scapular bone, and continues close to the profile of the an- 

 terior third of the back when it suddenly terminates. Another fine line 

 follows the upper fourth of the side to the root of the caudal. The 

 scales are of moderate size, oval, excessively thin and so deciduous, that 

 the exact number cannot be ascertained. The trenchant abdominal 

 profile contains upwards of 38 spines. The caudal is deeply cleft, the 

 lower lobe, longer than the upper, equals the length of the head. The 

 distance from the muzzle to the anal is 2\ in the total length. The ex- 

 tent of the base is \ of the total length, (in P. tartoore it is little more 

 than J,) the length of the rays does not exceed the horizontal diameter of 

 the eye. The first pectoral ray, the longest, is situated nearly in the centre 

 of the vertical diameter ; it is broad, sword-like, with distinct articulations ; 

 its length is a little less than the head. At Pinang individuals from 4 to 

 6 inches in length are numerous at all seasons, although less so than they 

 are at the Sandheads and the mouths of the Ganges. The Bengal fisher- 

 men denominate the species " Potassak-Fessah or -Phasah" " Fes- 

 sah" or " Phasah" as Buchanan Hamilton observes, is in Bengal a 



