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Show 238 SURGEON F. DAY ON INDIAN FISHES. [Mar. 4, anal; pectoral rounded, and as long as the head without the snout. Teeth compressed, in a single row, about thirty in the lower jaw, and an equal number in the upper. Scales ctenoid. Lateral line ceasing below the end of the soft dorsal. Colours olive, becoming light inferiorly. Seven rows of blue spots behind the eyes, passing across the gill-covers ; one row along the suborbital ring, and one across the snout. A black spot at the base of the pectoral. A row of light lines along the centre of the scales on the sides. Fins dark-coloured ; base of caudal barred in lines. Hab. Madras, to 5 inches. Some years since I procured one specimen of this fish, now a second; and one exists in the Madras Museum. This is probably the species alluded to by the late Dr. Jerdon, M . J. L. & S. 1851, p. 133, which be got at Madras up to 3 inches in length, but did not name. I have therefore termed it jerdoni, after its first discoverer. NOVACULA RUFA, Sp. nOV. D. 2 | J. A. 3/12. L. 1. 26. L. tr. 5/13. Length of head %, of caudal g, height of body nearly \ of the total length. Eyes high up, and above 2 diameters from end of snout. Body strongly compressed. Upper surface of head sharp. Fins, the two first dorsal spines produced, and a deep notch in the interspinous membrane dividing them from the rest of the fin ; outer ventral ray produced. Scales on chest smaller than those on the body. Colours rosy, becoming yellowish along the abdomen ; caudal with dark greyish, irregularly reticulated bands ; fins, excluding the caudal, yellow ; eyes bright red. Hab. Madras. OPHIOCEPHALUS MICROPELTES, CUV. D. 42. A. 27. L. 1. 100. L. tr. ^. Height of body \, length of head -f-, of caudal \ of the total length. Otherwise m y specimens agree with the descriptions given except in the coloration, as the spots are black and the fins have a white margin. Hab. Trichoor, near Cochin, where I obtained five specimens, the smallest of which was upwards of a foot in length. This fish, hitherto recorded from Siam and the East-Indian archipelago, appears to take a wide range. But it is peculiar in not having been found in any of the countries intermediate between Malabar and Siam. iEsOPIA CORNUTA, CuV. D. 75. P. 10. V. 3-4. A. 61-62. L. 1. 100. Length of head \, of caudal J^, height of body about \ of the total length. Eyes close together, the upper scarcely in advance of the lower. One short tubular nostril on the coloured side. A few minute filaments along the lower edge of the jaw. Fins: vertical |
