BY J. DOUGLAS OGILBY. 285 



three lines. It is impossible, therefore, to consider either of these 

 species as providing the type of Kaup's genus, and the fact that 

 that author's description was mainly copied from Richardson does 

 not invalidate the claim of habenata to that position. 



Five species are apparently referable to the genus C ongermurcena 

 as here restricted, namely : — 



1. CONGERMUR^NA HABEXATA. 



= Conyrus habenatus, Richardson, Zool. Erebus & Terror, 

 Ichth. p. 109, pi. L. ff. 1-5, 1844. 

 Hab. — New Zealand. 



2. C0NGERMUR.ENA LONGICAUDA. 



= Congromurcena longicauda, Ramsay & Ogilby, Proc. Linn. 

 Soc. KS. AVales, xii. 1888, p. 1022. 



Hab. — New South Wales. 1 Victoria. ? Tasmania. 



Neither Castelnau nor Johnston mentions the comparative length 

 of the tail to that of the head and body in the specimens from 

 Victoria and Tasmania, and it is impossible, therefore, to state 

 whether they belong to the long-tailed continental or the short- 

 tailed insular species. In the seven New South "Wales examples 

 which I have examined the tail is much longer than in the sintrle 

 New Zealand specimen in the Univer.sity Museum or than in that 

 described by Richardson, but if when a larger series shall have 

 been compared, no other permanent difference is found to exist, 

 it is questionable whether it will not be advisable to reunite the 

 two forms or merely separate them subspecifically. This, how- 

 ever, opens up the broader question as to whether too much stress 

 has not been laid upon the proportionate measurements of the 

 tail and trunk in these eels, a question which cannot be satis- 

 factorily settled until our knowledge of the various species is 

 much more extended than it is at present. 



3. CoxGERMUu.EXA SANCTi-PAULi, nom.nov. 



=-Ophlsonia habenaiiisl, Kner, Voy. Novara, Fisch. p. 374, 

 pi. xiii. f. 2, 1867. 

 Hab. — St. Paul's Island, Indian Ocean. 



