THE FISHES OF MALABAR. 
75 
Colours — Ground colour of a dark olivaceous brown, with a light band from orbit to root of 
caudal, next a dark one from the shoulder to the caudal, below which it becomes lighter towards 
the abdomen, where it has a slight silvery tint. All the fins are brownish, the pectorals being 
stained with black, the ventrals with grey, the caudal also with blackish grey, and the external 
corners of the lobes tipped with white. 
Grows to two feet in length : and is eaten by the Natives. 
Habitat—Seas of India, Malaysia, China, and Japan. The tropical parts of the Atlantic, 
extending along the shores of the United States. 
Genus ECHENEIS, Artedi. 
Branchiostegals, eight: pseudobranchiae. Body elongate, fusiform. Eyes lateral or directed down¬ 
wards and outwards. Cleft of mouth wide. Infraorbital bones do not articulate with the preopercle. Head 
depressed. The spinous dorsal modified to au adhesive disk on the summit of head and neck. Ventrals 
thoracic: no finlets, or keel on the tail. Teeth villiform on jaws, vomer, palatine bones, and generally 
on the tongue. Scales very small. No air bladder. Pyloric appendages in moderate numbers. 
Echeneis NAUCRATES. 
Echeneis naucrates, Linn. Syst. i. p.446; Cantor , Catal. p. 199; Gunther, Catal. 
ii. p. 384. 
Ala mottah, Bussell , pi. 49. 
PUTTHOO MUDAY, Mai. 
B. vii. D. 22-25 | 33-41. P. 20. V. l A. C. 17. 
Length of head rather more than jt, of pectoral J, , of base of second dorsal 1, of base of anal 1, 
of caudal of total length. Height of head j ] ,j, of body of second dorsal A> of anal A, of 
ventral J of total length. 
Eyes—Oval, looking obliquely outwards and downwards, horizontal diameter b, and vertical 
diameter j of length of head, 2d,- diameters apart superiorly, but interiorly only 2 : 2 diameters 
from end of upper jaw. 
Body—Cylindrical, tapering off to the tail. Upper surface of head covered by a flattened 
oval disk, rather widest posteriorly, one fifth of the total length, and two and a-half times as long as 
wide, containing usually if not invariably in Malabar specimens twenty-two transverse laminte with 
dentated or spiny teeth on the posterior margin of each, and also a central wide tooth, or smooth 
bony elevation between each near their centres, so that a vacuum can be created along the whole 
extent of the disk, or only in one-half. The most anterior of the laminae are directed slightly 
forwards, the second quarter are nearly transverse, and the posterior go backwards, the difference 
between each succeeding one being very gradual. External to this disk is a wide fleshy membrane, 
which posteriorly extends over the occiput, but anteriorly does not reach to the end of the upper 
jaw ; the whole acting as a sucker. 
Mouth—Oblique, maxilla extending about as far as the anterior margin of orbit. Mandibulge 
l 2 
