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Show 1889.] FISHES FROM MUSCAT. 215 DlAGRAMMA JAYAKARI. Having received a second specimen, a skin 22 inches long, from Muscat, agreeing in colour with the specimen so named by me, but with D. i£, I provisionally accept Mr. Day's opinion that D. jayakari is a colour-variety of D. griseum. According to Mr. Jayakar's notes the body, when fresh, is of a pale white colour, with yellow spots. Length of the longest spine " seven eighths " the depth of the body, in my diagnosis, is a lapsus for "two sevenths." APHAREUS RUTILANS, C. & V. M v notes on this fish were, by an oversight, taken from a specimen of Pagellus afiinis, although the true A. rutilans was actually included in Mr. Jayakar's first collection. PAGRUS RUBER. On examination of a large series of specimens, 1 now consider this supposed new species to be identical with P. spinifer, as suggested by Mr. Day. C A R A N X JAYAKARI. (Plate XXVI.) Mr. Day makes this a synonym of C. nigrescens. I have never seen an example of the latter, but if the figure in the ' Fishes of India' is to be relied upon, the two appear to be distinct. It is to be remarked that Mr. Day describes his C. nigrescens as having the "fins nearly black, especially the dorsal," whilst the specimens of C. jayakari before me, now three in number, have the fins devoid of black pigment. In C. jayakari the anterior rays of the anal measure nearly three fourths the length of the base of the same fin. The type specimen is figured on the Plate. UMBRINA STRIATA. On comparison of the type with the figure of If. sinuata, Day, a species founded upon quite young specimens, I find the following differences, which do not seem to be ascribable to age:-The origin of the spinous dorsal falls in advance of the base of the pectoral in U. sinuata, above the axil in U. striata ; in the latter species there are not nine sinuous dark bands on the body, while in U. sinuata there are as many as there are series of scales ; besides the direction of these bands is not the same in the two fishes-since,for instance, the band originating above the base of the pectoral extends to the 8th and 9th rays of the soft dorsal in U. sinuata, to the 16th and 17th in U. striata. TRIGLA ARABICA. (Plate XXVII.) This species has been considered identical with T. polysticta by Mr. Day, who states, I know not on what authority, that the " bony plate along the base of the dorsal fin" is wider in small than in large examples. This view is clearly erroneous, from the fact that the dermo-ossifications in question are absolutely more developed in T. arabica than in the larger T. polysticta, as may be seen by the figure PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1889, No. XVII. 17 |