| OCR Text |
Show 1870.] LIEUT.-COL. PLAYFAIR ON A NEW FISH FROM ADEN. 85 acute; whorls 6^, regularly increasing, crossed by rather prominent, straight, widely separated ribs, the last contracted and ascendent; aperture ovately circular, thick, callous, and shining ; margins formed by a thick callus continuous with the aperture. Breadth 0*04, height 0*08 of an inch. Hab. Wanga, San Christoval, Solomon Islands; found on the mountains, in damp places (Brazier). 17. CYCLOSTOMA BRAZIERI. Shell pyramidal; spire acute and elevated, apex rose-red ; whorls 5, round, under the lens very faintly spirally striated, dark cinnamon-colour ; suture deep ; umbilicus deep and narrow ; aperture circular ; peristome plain, scarcely thickened. Operculum solid, very concave outwardly, with prominent circular ridges. Breadth 0*13, height 0*16. Hab. Upolu, Navigator's Islands ; found on the mountains, under decaying logs (Brazier). 10. Note on a Freshwater Fish from the Neighbourhood of Aden. By Lieut.-Col. P L A Y F A I R , F.Z.S., H . M . Consul- General in Algeria. I am indebted to the kindness of my successor at Aden, Captain Goodfellow, for several specimens of a Cyprinoid fish recently discovered in South Arabia. During all the years I resided there I never heard of its existence, and I was fully convinced that the streams of that region, which are almost if not entirely dry in summer, and which even in the cold season are lost in the sand before reaching the sea, were destitute of fishes. Not long ago the Sultan of Lahej, whose territories touch Aden, and of which, indeed, the latter once formed a part, sent to the Political Resident a jar of fishes, which he had caught in one of his streams, and which he suggested should be put into the ancient reservoirs, recently restored, and then full of rain-water. This was done, and in a very short time the fishes increased both in number and size ; and it is of these that Capt. Goodfellow forwarded the specimens before mentioned. I was at first inclined to regard it as a new species of Discognathus, chiefly from the fact that it has four and a half series of scales between the lateral line and the root of the ventral fin, whereas the only other known species nearly resembling it had but two or two and a half. M y friend Dr. Gunther, however, who has compared it with numerous specimens of D. lamia in the National collection from various localities between Nepaul and Palestine, has no doubt that it is referable to that remarkable species. |
