OCR Text |
Show 1869.] SURGEON F. DAY ON INDIAN FISHES. 613 species of fish, that both it and the Clarias magur, H. B., are bred in India and the East for stocking tanks. There is hardly any thing which pays better, whilst the trouble is but slight. Domestication causes a wide difference in a few generations even in fishes; and an overstocked tank will give a larger proportion of the lanky S. fossilis, Bl., than the stouter-looking 5. sincjio, H. B. In the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal' (18C0, p. 156), Mr. Blyth gives a short description of Pseudosilurus macrophthal-tnus, sp. nov., from Burma, specimens of which I was unable to find in the collection, but I recognize it in the following, which I procured in the Irrawaddi. CALLICHROUS MACROPHTHALMUS, Blyth. D. 4. P. ± V. 6. A. 74-76. C 17. Length of head ^, of pectoral T 2 ¥, height of body £ of the total length. Eyes. Diameter l of length of head, 1 diameter from end of snout, 2\ diameters apart. Lower jaw prominent; maxillary cirri reach to the middle of the length of the fish, their extremities being very fine; mandibular ones to the gill-opening. Teeth in cardiform bands in both jaws ; in a single or double series across the vomer, interrupted in the middle. Fins. Pectoral spine as long as the head without the snout, strongly serrated internally in its last half. A deep notch between the posterior extremity of the anal and the commencement of the caudal, which latter is deeply lobed, the lower one being the longest. Colours. A well-developed round black blotch exists above the posterior third of the pectoral fin. Body greenish along the back, sides silvery, abdomen shot with purple. Opercles covered with fine spots and glossed with a golden colour. Differs from C. bimaculatus in the larger size of the eye, the greater length of the pectoral spine and maxillary cirri, as well as in the extent of the anal fin, &c. Hab. The Irrawaddi and its branches. POLOTUS NITIDUS, Blyth (J. A. S. of Bengal, 1858, p. 282), is doubtless the Coius gudgutia, H. Buch. (pp. 94, 370), as subsequently observed by Mr. Blyth (I. c. 1860, p. Ill); but it is not a Mesoprion as he suggested, but the Pristipoma hasta, Bl. CHAETODON LAYARDI, Blyth, in Kelaart's 'Prod. Faun. Zeylan. Appendix' (p. 50), is Chcetodon vittatus, Bl. Schn. PHRACTOCEPHALUS ITCHKEEA, Sykes (Trans. Zool. Soc. ii, p. 373, t. 67. f. 1), is not a Macrones as suggested by Dr. Gunther (Catal. v. p. 84), but is identical with Pimelodus cenia, H. Buch. (pp. 174, 376, pl. 31. f. 57), a Hemipimelodus of Bleeker. It is fully described in my paper " On the Fishes of Orissa." (See antea, p. 308.) |