THE FISHES OF MALABAR. 
269 
Fins—The anterior dorsal is situated nearer to the pectoral than to the ventral fun its posterior 
border is emarginate, and its upper and posterior angle forms an elongated point: the posterior 
dorsal commences opposite the last half of the base of the anal, which is two-thirds as long as 
that of the second dorsal. The interval between the caudal and anal is double the length of the 
base of the latter. Caudal low, its superior lobe cut very obliquely at its free extremity, which 
is slender. 
Scales—Minute, rounded, and with five, four, or three keels. 
Colours—Grey above ; white beneath. 
Habitat—Eed Sea, Seas of India, Malaysia, China. 
Genus PRXONODON, Mull, and Henle. 
Peionace, Cantor. 
Differs from the Genus Scoliodon by the teeth of either the upper or of both jaws being finely denticulated 
on either side, oblique or straight, trigonal, or with a broad base and small apex. There is almost inva¬ 
riably an extra central tooth in the upper jaw. Oviduct of embryo smooth. 
'•Prionodon MELANOPTERUS. 
Carchaeias melanopterus, Quoy & Gaim. Freycin. Voy. p. 194, pi. 43, f. 1, 2. 
Prionace melanopterus, Cantor , Catal. p. 400. 
Prionodon melanopterus, Gray 1 Catal. Brit. Mus. p. 46; Dumeril , Icli. gen. i. 
p. 365. 
Snout short, rounded, in some almost pointed. The space between the eyes longer than that 
anterior to them. Nostrils nearer the centre of the margin of the snout than they are to the anterior 
border of the mouth. The fourth and fifth branchial apertures situated above the pectoral fin. 
Teeth—Trigonal, and situated either obliquely or straight ; those in the lower jaw the smallest 
and narrowest: the teeth in both jaws denticulated on either side in the adult, but in the immature 
only those of the upper jaw. There is generally an odd central tooth in the upper jaw. 
Fins—Anterior dorsal situated nearer to the pectoral than to the ventral, it commences 
slightly behind the termination of the pectoral, and is much higher than the posterior dorsal, which 
is slightly in advance of the anal, and extends to opposite its posterior third. Pectoral emargi- 
nate. Ventral begins in the last third of the distance between the commencement of the 
pectoral and of the anal. Caudal nearly one-fourth of the total length, the angle of its lower lobe 
slightly rounded. 
The male appendages are shorter than the internal margin of the ventral fin. 
Scales—Minute, with from three to seven keels. 
Colours—Bluish grey, fading to whitish beneath. Iris grey, stained darker at its superior 
portion. 
Habitat—Red Sea, Seas of India, Malaysia, the Moluccas, New Guinea, China, Australia, and 
the Cape of Good Hope. 
