FAMILY, I— PERCID^E. 19 



Habitat. — Malabar to 3 feet in length. I have not seen this species that I am aware of, unless it is a 

 Lutianus. It may probably be Russell's Rangoo. 



15. Serranus Malabaricus, Plate IV, fig. 2. 



Holocentrus Malabaricus, Bl. Schn. p. 319, pi. 63. 



Holocentrus pantherinus, Lacep. Poiss. iii, t. 27, f. 3 andiv, pp. 389 and 392. 



Perca bontoo and P. madinawa bontoo, Russell, Fish. Vizag. ii, pp. 20, 21, pi. 127 and 128. 



Bola ? coioides, Ham. Buch. Fish. Ganges, pp. 82, 369. 



Serranus bontoo, Cuv. and Val. ii, pp. 334, vi, p. 523 ; Cantor, Catal. p. 11 ; Giinther, Catal. i, p. 138 ; Day, 

 Fish. Malabar, p. 3. 



Serranus suillus, Cuv. and Val. ii, p. 335 ; Bleeker, Verh. Bat. Gen. xxii, p. 9 ; Giinther, Catal. i, p. 127 ; 

 Playfair, Fish. Zanz. p. 5. 



Serranus maculosus et pantherinus, Cuv. and Val. ii, pp. 332 and 333. 



Serranus crapao, Cuv. and Val. hi, p. 494; Rich. An. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1842, ix, p. 25; Bleeker, Verh. 

 Bat. Gen. xxii, Perc. p. 37 ; Giinther, Catal. i, p. 137. 



Serranus diacopeformis, Benn. Life Raffles, Fish. Sumatra, p. 686. 



Serranus nebulosus et schihpan, Richards. Ich. China, pp. 231, 232. 



Serranus coioides, Cantor, Catal. p. 11. 



Epinephelus crapao, Bleeker, Atl. Ich. Perc. t. viii, f. 1. 



Epinephelus pantherinus, Bleeker, Epinephelini, p. 78. 



Punni-calaivah, Tarn. : Bontoo, Tel. : Bool, Chittagong : Nga-towhtoo, Arrak. : Kyouk-theyga-]cakadit,~BuTm. : 

 Bdb-na-dah and O-ro-tam-dali, Andamanese. 



Variety, S. bontoo, Madinawah bontoo, Tel. : Roiv-je-dah, Andam. 



B. vii, D. -H:|f, P. 19, V. 1/5, A. r i T , C. 15, L. 1. 90, L. r. yV. L. tr. 19/50, Cffic. pyl. 50-60. 



Length of head 31 to 3f , of caudal 1/5 to 1/6, height of body 2/7 to 1/4 of the total length. Eyes — 

 diameter 1/5 to 1/6 of length of head, 1 to 1| diameters from the end of snout, and the same apart. Literorbital 

 space flat : the prasniaxillary reaching to opposite the front edges of the orbit. The maxilla extends to below 

 the posterior edges of the orbit, or even behind it in large specimens. Vertical limb of preopercle slightly 

 emarginate, finely serrated, becoming more coarsely so at its rather square angle, where there exist from four to 

 seven coarse teeth, its lower margin entire, as are also the sub- and inter-opercles, occasionally there are two or 

 three serrations on the inter-opercle. Opercle with three spines, the central one being the longest. The fry has 

 no spine at the angle of the preopercle. Teeth — one or two canines in either jaw, those in the upper usually the 

 longer : the outer row 'of teeth in the upper jaw, and the inner in the lower, are the largest. Fins — the dorsal 

 spines from the third are of about the same height, and equal to one-half the length of the post-orbital portion 

 of the head, but not so high as the rays : the pectoral is longer than the ventral, and about equal the post-orbital 

 portion of the head in length, soft portions of dorsal and anal fins rounded : the second anal spine in most estuary 

 specimens equal the length of the third, but in marine ones it is often slightly shorter : caudal rounded. Scales — 

 ctenoid, and in about 15 rows between the 6th dorsal spine and the lateral line. Caical pylori — from 50 to 60, 

 but two or more open into a single basal tube. Colours — brownish, fading to grey or dirty white on the abdomen : 

 the whole of the fish, even over to the branchiostegal rays covered with bright yellow or orange spots, which often 

 become brown after death : three large blotches on the inter-opercle appear to be present in all varieties of this 

 fish. In the S. Malabaricus Bloch, some brown spots are often during life intermingled with the orange ones, 

 and it is vertically banded usually as follows ; one passes from the first four dorsal spines to the pectoral fin : 

 another from between the second and ninth to the abdomen : two more descend from the soft dorsal fin, and a 

 fifth encircles the free portion of the tail : pectoral reddish spotted with yellow, sometimes the caudal, pectoral 

 and ventral fins are unspotted but marked with darker shades, or the bands are continued on to them. This 

 variety is the commonest, mostly marine, and the bands are unusually well marked in the young. In the variety 

 S. bontoo, the bands when present bifurcate inferiorly, and the spots are all black ; this is a marine and the 

 rarest form,, never appearing to attain to a large size. In the variety 'S. coioides, H. B. = S. suillus, C. V. 

 the bands are absent, or else indistinctly visible ; this is mostly taken in estuaries or large rivers, as the Hooghly 

 at Calcutta. 



Russell observed that the plate 128 (S. bontoo) may perhaps " be merely a variety" of plate 127 

 (S. coioides). Hamilton Buchanan, p. 82, remarked of his coioides, "this fish agrees so well with the description 

 of the medinaiva bontoo of Dr. Russell (Indian Fishes, vol. ii, no. 128) that I do not think them different 

 species," p. 82. Cuvier considered Russell's species distinct : Playfair, " Fishes of Zanzibar," doubted if they 

 might not be identical. 



Russell records one taken at Vizagapatam in January 1786, which measured 7 feet in length, 5 in girth, 

 and weighed upwards of three hundred pounds. Amongst Sir Walter Elliot's drawings is a figure of the banded 

 variety S. Malabaricus, marked Serranus suillus and Kullawaee : a foot and a half in length is given as the size of 

 the specimen. 



The fish figured, pi. iv, fig. 2, is the variety coioides, the specimen being about 21 inches in length, and 

 taken at Calcutta. 



In one specimen of the variety S. bontoo 8^ inches long, not only has it 12 dorsal spines, but the sixth 

 has also two separate spinate terminations. 



Habitat.— Seas of India to the Malay Archipelago, China, and beyond, attaining to a very large size. 



D 2 



