THE FISHES OF MALABAR. 
60 
An air bladder present. 
Grows to about ten inches in length. It is captured in Cochin in enormous numbers from 
January until May, its average size is about seven and a half inches. Although excellent eating 
when quite fresh, it soon taints and is rarely brought to the table of Europeans. It is commonly 
salted, dried in the sun, and exported in bundles of about one thousand each, mostly to Ceylon. 
Habitat—Red Sea, Seas of India, Malaysia and China. 
Genus CYBIUM, Cuvier . 
Branchiostegals, seven: pseudobranchise. Body oblong or rather elongate. Eyes lateral. Cleft of 
mouth wide. Infraorbital bones do not articulate with the preopercle. Two dorsals, the first extending 
to commencement of the second, spinous, and not so developed as the second: seven or more pairs of 
finlets behind second dorsal and anal fins. A slight ridge on either side of root of caudal lobes. Teeth 
large and strong on jaws, villiform on vomer, palatine bones, and tongue. Ah' bladder present. 
All the species of this genus are comprised under the common appellation of Seirjish by European resi¬ 
dents in British India. 
Cybjum Commersonii. 
Scomber Commersonii, Lacep. ii. p. 600, pi. 20, f. 1. 
Konam, Bussell , pi. 135. 
Cybium Commersonii, Cuv. & Val. viii. p. 165 ; Cantor, Catal. p. 108 5 GiintJier , Catal. 
ii. p. 370. 
Chumbum, Mai . Seir fish. 
B. vii. D. 16-17. | ( ix-x. P. 20-23. Y. A. yflfg | ix-x. C. 17. 
Length of head jj, of pectoral of caudal of base of first dorsal jj, of base of second 
dorsal (excluding finlets) T ] T , of anal (excluding finlets) jq of total length. Height of head J, of 
body jj, of first dorsal -J ()) of anal tw of total length. 
Eyes—Oval, surrounded by a small circular adipose membrane. Horizontal diameter 
vertical jj of length of head, 2 transverse diameters from end of snout, 1 |- transverse diameters 
apart. 
Body elongate, tapering towards either extremity, both it and sides of head strongly com¬ 
pressed, the latter also depressed: anteriorly the snout comes to a sharp point. 
Mouth deeply cleft, upper jaw with rather a concave lower margin, produced in front ; lower 
jaw nearly horizontal, with a fleshy protuberance at the symphysis. Vertical limb of intermax- 
illaries very broad, the two conjoined having somewhat the appearance of the upper bill of a 
rasorial bird. Maxilla extends to beneath the centre of the orbit. Preorbital narrow. Preopercle, 
its posterior border rather concave along its centre, so that its angle .which is rounded appears 
rather produced, its lower border rather more than half the length of its vertical one. Opercle 
narrow. Cleft of gills very wide, extending to under the centre of the lower jaw. Upper surface of 
head flat with a raised ridge along its centre. Nostrils in front of upper third of orbit, in a 
depressed triangular space surrounded by rather raised margins. 
