THE FISHES OF MALABAR. 
135 
In one specimen of an incli in length and having one spine in the dorsal and one ray in the 
anal less than in any of the others, the colours differ, being of a beautiful rose colour, and rather 
dark brown along the back and base of the anal fin. Two deep black horizontal lines pass one 
from above the orbit direct to the caudal, and a second from the angle of the mouth, through 
the eye to the caudal. Head and cheeks spotted. 
Grows to about three inches in length, and is eaten by the Natives. Is found in ditches and 
frequently remains under stones in the water, in which situation it is readily captured by the 
hand. 
Habitat—Fresh waters of Malabar, and Coromandel. 
Fam. ATHERINID2E. 
Genus ATHERINA, Artedi. 
Branchiostegals, five or six: pseudobranchise. Body subcylindrical and elongated. Eyes large, lateral. 
Cleft of mouth rather deep. Upper jaw protractile. Snout obtuse. Two dorsals widely separated, the 
spines of the first feeble: anal resembling the soft dorsal or slightly larger. Ventrals abdominal with one 
spine and five rays. Teeth minute, those on palate sometimes indistinct. Scales cycloid, of moderate 
size. Air bladder present. Pyloric appendages none. 
\ 
Atherina Forskalii. 
? Atherina hepsetus, Forsk. p. 69. 
Atherina Forskalii, Blip. N. W. F., p. 132, t. 33, f. 1; Cantor , Catal. p. 103 ; 
Gilntlier , Catal. iii. p. 397. 
B. vi. D. 5 | p - 17. V. 1. A. C. 15. L. 1. 40. L. tr. 6-7. 
Length of head of pectoral | , of caudal of base of first dorsal A, of second dorsal A> °f 
base of anal A of total length. Height of head of body of first dorsal A, of second dorsal A? 
of ventral of anal A °f total length. 
Eyes—Very large, nearly circular, the upper margin of the orbit forming part of the profile. 
Diameter from 1 length of head to f, x of a diameter from end of snout, and 1 diameter apart. 
Body elongated and compressed, tapering towards the caudal extremity: upper profile nearly 
straight—excepting where the upper margin of the orbit causes a slight bulging—and beyond the 
second dorsal, where it slightly sinks : the lower profile is more convex than the upper. 
Snout short, mouth oblique, upper jaw slightly protractile. Maxilla extends to beneath the 
anterior third of the orbit. Lower jaw very slightly the longest: along its lower margin there are the 
openings of five or six pores, and two or three more on the preorbitals. Preopercle narrow and 
rectangular, with the angle rounded, and horizontal limb nearly as long as the vertical. Opercle 
ending in a soft point. Summit of head almost flat, on the vertex there is a raised triangular 
space, which is continued in the form of a narrow elevation as far as the anterior third of the 
interorbital space. Passing backwards from the posterior superior margin of the orbit, is a rather 
deep longitudinal groove, which extends above the upper margin of the opercle and contains the 
openings of two or three pores. 
Teeth—Bands of fine villiform ones in both jawu on the vomer, palatine, and pterygoid bones. 
