ABROSTOMUS UMBRATUS. 



brownish purple-red, and tinted with bright lemon-yellow. Eyes deep gall- 

 stone-yellow shaded with brownish orange, a narrow ring around the pupil 

 light gamboge-yellow. 



Form, &c. — Figure subovate and prolonged ; the dorsal and abdominal 

 outlines slightly arched, the outlines near to caudal fin almost straight. Head 

 slightly arched superiorly and rather depressed ; snout prominent, pulpy, 

 and consists of the covering of the maxillary bones ; mouth transverse ; gape 

 moderate ; lips tumid and pulpy, as represented in Plate XII. fig. a ; nostrils 

 about a line and a half in front of superior and anterior edge of orbits, the 

 hindermost opening the largest ; cirri four, about 4 lines in length, two of 

 them pendant from the front of the snout, and two from the angles of the 

 mouth. Eyes moderate ; suboperculum narrow ; interoperculum small, and 

 semilunar behind. Lateral line nearly straight, and extends from the middle 

 of the scapular plate to the base of the caudal fin ; scales of several sizes, and 

 varied as to shape ; on some parts the exposed portion of the scales is six- 

 sided, in some four-sided, and in others subovate ; they are generally very 

 small, considering the size of the fish, those on the under parts are much the 

 smallest; the scales, along which the lateral line extends, are irregularly five- 

 sided, (vide Plate XII. fig. b,) and towards their tips finely and closely striated. 

 Dorsal fin rather large, its base anteriorly nearer to the snout than to the base of 

 caudal fin ; the base of the pectoral fins directly under the middle of dorsal 

 fin ; the anterior edge of base of anal fin about midway between pectoral and 

 caudal fins ; the first and second rays of dorsal and anal, and the first ray of 

 the ventral fins, hard, the rest soft and divided. Caudal fin deeply forked. 



Fin rays, D. 10. P. 12. V. 10. A. 6. C. 21. 



This fish is found in slow running streams to the North of Orange River, and generally in 

 pools with a considerable depth of water and whose bottom is thickly coated with mud. It 

 never takes a bait ; therefore specimens are only secured by dragging with nets in such rivers. 

 It is not regarded by the natives as eatable. 



