FAMILY, I— PERCIL\E. 7 



Pristipoma, Caranx, Osphromenus, &c, vertical bands are found, as a sign that the fish is immature. Lateral 

 longitudinal broad bands are frequently modified, two narrow ones taking the place of a single wider one, as seen 

 in Cheilodipterus, Diagranvma, &c. Likewise in stuffed examples, or in those which have been long macerated in 

 spirit, marks which were distinct in the fresh specimen, become more or less obliterated. Irrespective of the 

 foregoing, the period intervening between capture and examination, has a considerable bearing upon their 

 fugitive colours, as well as whether they have been sodden in water, or kept dry by their captors : for instance, 

 if a dark coloured fish is placed in a dry situation, and strips of moist cloth laid over it and kept wet, the portions 

 of the body which have not been allowed to dry will be found to be of a lighter tint than those not so treated, 

 and this banded appearance which can be so easily produced is indelible. It is by no means uncommon for the 

 caudal fin to be white in the young, but black in the adult as in Diagranvma nigrum. 



The foregoing brief remarks on the colours of fishes will explain how it is that the descriptions in this 

 -w r ork do not always agree with those of other observers. Such discrepancies indeed often merely mean, that 

 the colours of the same species of fish may differ in different districts. 



First group — Percina. 



Form of body oblong. Opercles strongly denticulated or armed. Cleft of mouth rather oblique. Two 

 dorsal fins : three anal spines. Scales of moderate size. Pyloric appendages few. 



Genus, 1 — Lates, Guv. and Vol. 



Branchiostegals seven: pseudobranchim. Body oblong and someivhat compressed. Preorbital, and shoulder 

 bone serrated : preopercle with strong spines at its angle, and denticulated along its horizontal limb : opercle spinate. 

 Teeth villiform on jaws, vomer, and palatine bones, tongue smooth. Two dorsal fins united at their bases, the first 

 with seven or eight spines, the anal with three : caudal rounded. Scales finely ctenoid, and of moderate size. Ccecal 

 pylori few. 



Geographical distribution. Mouths of the Nile : from the coasts of Sind throughout the seas of India to 

 the Malay Archipelago, China, and Australia. 



Uses. Besides being in most places excellent as food, their air-vessels or sounds are dried, and appear in 

 commerce as rough isinglass, much of which is exported from India to China, and some to Europe. Cantor 

 observes that this fish " yields isinglass in the Straits, but little is collected, partly on account of the comparative 

 scarcity of the fish, and partly owing to the thinness of the air-vessel. That of a large sized fish when dried 

 weighs upwards of one ounce." 



SYNOPSIS OF INDIVIDUAL SPECIES.* 



1. Lates calcarifer D 7 — Sj-n^T^i A. ■$%, L. 1. 60. Colour greyish. Seas of India, China, and Australia. 



1. Lates calcarifer, Plate I, fig. 1. 



Holocentrus calcarifer, Bloch, t. 244. 



Perca calcar, Bl. Schn. p. 89. 



Perca pandoomenoo, Russell, Fish. Vizag., ii, p. 23, f. 131. 



Holocentrus heptadactylus, Lacep. iv, pp. 344, 391. 



Coius vacti, Ham. Buch. Fish. Granges, pp. 86, 369, pi. 16, f. 28. 



Lates nobilis, Cuv. and Val. ii, p. 96, f. 13 ; Richardson, Ich. China, p. 222 ; Bleeker, Perc. p. 27 ; Cantor, 

 Catal. Mai. Fish. p. 1 ; Hageman, Nat. Tyds. Ned. Ind. 1851, p. 348. 



Lates calcarifer, Giinther, Catal. Fish, i, p. 68 & P.Z.S. 1870, p. 824; Day, Fishes of Malabar, p. 2. 



Plectropoma calcarifer, Bleeker, Atl. Ich. Perc. t. xlv, fig. 3. 



Dangara, Sind. ; Nuddee-meen or Nair-meen, Mai. ; Painnee-meen or Koduiva, Tam. ; Pandu Jcopah or 

 Pandu menu, Tel. ; Durruah and Beklcut, Ooriah ; Begti, Beng. ; Nga-tha-dyh, Arrac ; Koral, or if large Baor, 

 Chittagong ; Todah, Andam. ; Gocli-up of Europeans. 



B. vii, D. 7—Qj^—, P. 17, V. 1/5, A. ¥ 3 ¥ , C. 17, L. 1. 52—60, L. tr. 6—7/13, Ceec. pyl. 3. 



Length of head from 3/11 to 1/4, of caudal 1/5 to 1/6, height of body 3/10 to 3/11 of the total length. 

 Eyes — diameter 1/5 to 1/6 of the length of the head, from 1 to \\ diameters from end of snout, and 3/4 of a dia- 

 meter apart. In the immature the eye is comparatively larger. The maxilla extends to below the posterior 

 edge of the orbit. Preorbital and preopercle finely serrated, the latter with an obtuse angle, having a large tooth 

 directed backwards, and three smaller but strong denticnlations along its lower edge : opercular spine weak. 

 Shoulder bone serrated. Teeth — villiform on jaws, vomer, and palatines. Fins — dorsal spines strong, the third 

 the highest, equalling about the length of the post-orbital portion of the head, from it they decrease : third anal 

 spine longest and strongest, their proportionate lengths varying according to age, thus at four inches long the 



* Although only one species of this Genus has been described from India, it will be necessary here to indicate the mode which 

 will be pursued in this work as to the position of each individual in Genera which possess more than one. An excellent method is to 

 begin with that form which is most typical : a second plan is to commence with those having the greatest affinity to the preceding Genns 

 and finish with those closely allied to the following one, in which case the most typical forms are in the middle: the third and least scien- 

 tific is what I propose adopting in order to facilitate reference, it is to place first those possessing the largest number of spines, rays and 

 scales, and continuing this plan throughout the Genus. Colour will not be adopted for reasons advanced under the next Genus. 

 (See page 9.) 



