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Show 1888.] MR. F. DAY ON THE FISHES OF INDIA. 259 third to the last is not carried out in a similar manner in all The specimen of 8. striolatus is stuffed, and the ends of the 3rd, 4th, and 10th dorsal spines are broken; the 3rd and 4th are said to be the longest and one third the length of the head, thus differing from S. altivelis: the last dorsal spine is rather more than half the length of the longest ray C^g)- The soft portions of the dorsal and anal fins are similar to S. altivelis and S. gibbosus; the pectoral is shorter than in S. gibbosus, which is nearly as long as in S. altivelis. The specimen of Serranus gibbosus is of very similar form to the foregoing, which may be owing to having been preserved in strong spirit instead of being a skin ; its third dorsal spine is nearly as long as the longest ray, but its last spine is broken. The length of its head (from the end of the snout to the end of the opercular spines) is 45 in that of the total length. The colours are between the two others ; its spots are larger in size than in S. striolatus, but having a similar tendency to form about 15 irregular rows along either side of the body. I think the Zanzibar and Muscat fishes are merely separated from one another by their colours, and that their form differs from C. altivelis in the shorter lengths of their dorsal spines. This fish does not appear to extend to the Red Sea ; consequently if S. striolatus and S. gibbosus are varieties of S. altivelis, they are found in the extreme limits at which this species extends to tbe west. Without, therefore, absolutely holding them to be identical, I think that when a larger number of specimens have been obtained they will probably only be ranked as varieties. SERRANUS DIACANTHUS, CUV. & Val. Epinephelus retouti, Bleeker, Fish. Madagascar, p. 21, pi. xii. f. SERRANUS LATIFASCIATUS, Schlegel. Serranus grammicus, Day, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 700. Since m y description of this fish was published, I have seen Scblegel's types in the Leyden Museum, and they undoubtedly belong to this species. SERRANUS MORRHUA, Cuv. & Val. Serranus preeopercularis, Boulenger, I. c. p. 654. As I have already given an account of the colours of this fish, I will merely remark that the young have sinuous white bands, but as the fish becomes older it assumes a brown eolour, with narrow black lines, which were the original borders of the white bands. In the Paris Museum is a young specimen having dark spots along the lines which bound the white bands. In Klunzinger's figure (Fisch. Roth. Meeres., t. i. f. 2), three brown lines radiate from the eye and become four curved ones on the body, the first going to the 8th dorsal spine, the second to the 5th ray, while between these are blotches, spots, or markings of the same colour. The fifth dorsal spine is shown the longest. |
