BY W. MACLEAY, F.L.S. 273 



922. MuR/EXICHTHYS BREVICEPS, Gunth. 



Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1876, Vol. XVII., p. 401. 



The origin of the dorsal fin is twice as distant from the vent as 

 from the gill-opening. The length of the head is only one-third 

 or two-sevenths of the distance of the gill-opening from the vent 

 or one-eleventh of the total length. Snout very long and narrow, 

 the cleft of the niouth extending to behind the eye. Teeth bi-serial. 



Tasmania. Length twenty inches. 



Genus Ophichthys, Gunth. 



The extremity of the tail free, not surrounded by the continu- 

 ation of the dorsal and anal fins. Teeth on the vomer as well as 

 in the jaws. 



Warm Seas. 



923. OrniCTiTHYs serpens, L. 



Gunth., Cat. Fishes VIII., p. 65. 



The length of the head is contained thrice and two-thirds or 

 four times in the distance between the gill-opening and the vent. 

 Snout slender, produced into a point ; cleft of the mouth very 

 wide, half as long as the head. Eye of moderate size, two sevenths 

 of the length of the snout, situated in the anterior third of the 

 head. Teeth pointed, fixed, unequal in size, those of the inter- 

 maxillary and maxillary bi-serial, the others uni-serial. The 

 intermaxillary teeth, the anterior ones of the mandible and those 

 of the vomer, are canines. Gill-openings rather wide. Vertical 

 fins moderately developed ; the distance between the base of the 

 pectoral and origin of the dorsal is twice or rather more than 

 twice the length of the pectoral, which is about one-sixth of that 

 of the head. The length of the body is somewhat more than 

 half the length of the tail. Silvery, brownish-red above, whitish 

 beneath. 



Lane Cove, Port Jackson. 



X 



