280 A. Alcock — List of Pleuronectidte /j-om the Bay of Bengal. [No. 3, 



alluvium ; tLe bed of the sea is an almost imperceptible slope of fine 

 sand and mud, and the more or less turbid waters are conscqiieutly so 

 shallow that the twenty-fathom line is distant from five to thirteen miles 

 from shore, while the hundred-fathom line ranges from fifteen to twenty- 

 two miles, as was determined by the ' Investigator ' in her recent 

 survey. Towards the south the sea deepens, and the bottom becomes 

 more sandy. 



The waters of this region swarm with crustaceans and fishes. 

 Pencsidce, Pagnridce, and all the families of the Brachyura exist in the 

 greatest abundance, while the surface waters are crowded with the 

 lower Crustacea and with crustacean Jarvaa. The commonest fishes 

 are 8cia»ia, Kurtns, Polynemiis, Equula, Arius, PeUonn ; Garcliarias 

 Bcyllium, Trygon ; and, among the Pleuronectids, Pifeudorhoiubus and 

 Cynoglossus. 



§ 2. List, with, Descriptions, of the Shall oiv-Water Fishes oltaiiied {in 

 the above region) during season 18b8-89. 



1. PSETTODES ERCMEI, (Blocll). 

 Giinther, Catalogne, iv, 402 ; Day, Fislies of India, p. 422, pi. xoi, fig. 4. 

 Met with from False Point to Ganjam, from 10 to 23 fathoms. 



2. Arnoglosbus uaceolophus, n. sp., PI. XVIII, Fig. 2. 

 D. 88-90. A. 67. L. Lat. 55. 

 Body rather elongate, its height being one-third of the total length. 

 The length of the head is contained nearly 4| times in the total, and is 

 equal to its height. The lower jaw projects slightly. The snout is 

 obtuse, almost as long as the eye, and excavated in front of the upper 

 eye. 



Eyes on the left side, large, their diameter being contained nearly 

 3f times in the length of the head. A large patent nostril in the 

 excavation of the snout above the upper eye ; and two in front of the 

 interorbital space, the anterior being valved. Cleft of mouth very 

 oblique. The length of the maxilla is contained 2|- times in the length 

 of the head. A single row of small sharp close set uniform teeth in 

 each jaw. The head of the vomer is very prominent. The tongue is 

 styliform. Gill-cleft very wide : the margin of the operculum forms a 

 semicircle. Gill-rakers distant, short, slender, and withovit any serra- 

 tions. Integument covered with small scales, strongly and sharply 

 ctenoid on the coloured, cycloid, thin, and excessively deciduous on the 

 blind side. The scales invest the base of the caudal and the lower 

 third of the rays of the vertical fins, at least on the coloured side. 



