Brownburnie

The brownburnie (Chaetodon blackburnii), also known as Blackburn's butterflyfish or the rayed butterflyfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a butterflyfish belonging to the familyChaetodontidae. It is found in the western Indian Ocean.

The brownburnie is rather drab when compared to many of its congeners.^[2] The body of this species is mainly brownish black with the head and front part of the body being bright yellow with a black vertical bar running across the eye. The dark colour extends onto the dorsal fin and the anal fin while the pelvic fins are bright yellow.^[3] The dorsal fin contains 16 spines and 21-23 soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines and 17-18 soft rays. This species attains a maximum total length of 13 centimetres (5.1 in).^[4]

The brownburnie is found in the western Indian Ocean. It is distributed along the East African coast from Kenya in the north to the Mbhashe River in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It has also been recorded from the French Southern and Antarctic Lands in the Mozambique Channel islands, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rodrigues and Réunion in the Indian Ocean.^[1]

The brownburnie inhabits shallow rocky reefs and calm bays with limited growth of coral.^[5] They are found wither solitarily or in pairs. They are omnivorous and feed on benthic invertebrates^[1] such as bivalves, soft coral polyps, crustaceans and worms^[5] as well as zooplankton.^[1] it is an oviparous species in which the male and females mate as pairs.^[4]

وُصِفَ طائر براونبيرني رسميًا لأول مرة عام 1836 على يد عالم الطبيعة الفرنسي جوليان ديجاردان (1799-1840)، وحدد موقعه الأصلي في موريشيوس. ^{[ 6 ]} ويُخلّد الاسم العلمي اسم الفقيه الإنجليزي إدوارد بيرنز بلاكبيرن (1786-1839) ^{[ 7 ]} الذي شغل منصب رئيس قضاة موريشيوس من عام 1824 إلى عام 1835 ^{[ 8 ]} ورئيس جمعية التاريخ الطبيعي لجزيرة موريشيوس. ^{[ 7 ]}

نادراً ما يُشاهد سمك براونبيرني في تجارة أحواض السمك بسبب لونه الباهت نسبياً. ^{[ 5 ]}