SUPPLEMENT, 1888. 796 



Fills — dorsal spines thin, flexible and equal in height to the body below them, second 

 dorsal and anal of similar height and one-third lower than the first dorsal. Pectoral 

 nearly as long as the head. Caudal rounded with its central rays somewhat the longest. 

 6'fa/e«— ctenoid in the posterior portion of the body, where they are larger than in the 

 anterior portion, and small on the sui-face of the head : none on the cheeks. Colours — ' 

 whitish with five wide and light chestnut bands descending from the back, each of which 

 has a black outer edge : another over the nape is without dark edges. Caudal fin brown, 

 with a broad yellowish black-bordered vertical band down its centre. A dark horizontal 

 band running along the cheeks below the eye. Dorsal fins light brown with white outer 

 edges, a large black white-edged blotch in the posterior half of the first dorsal fin, and a 

 second but smaller one at the termination of the second dorsal, which last fin is white at 

 its base. 



Habitat. — Madras. A skin from Sir W. Elliot's collection is 3'2 inches in length, but 

 it is in a bad condition. A coloured drawing was made when the fish was fresh. 



Page 312. Eleotris porocephalcs. Add synonyms. 



Eleotris ophiocephalus, Cuv. and Val. xii, p. 239 ; Giinther, Fische Siidsee, ii, p. 185, 



t. cxii, f . A. 

 Eleotris viridis, Bleeker, ^ladura, p. 22. 

 Ophiocara ophiocephala, Bleeker, Eleotriformes, 1874, p. 15. 



Page 312. For Eleotris ophiocephalus read E. tumifeon.s. Add synonyms. 



Eleotris tumifrons. Cuv. and Val. xii, p. 241. 



Ophiocara hoedtii (young), tolsoni (young), and aporos, Bleeker, Eleotriformes, 1875, pp. 33,35. 



Eleotris viacrolepidotus, Giinther, Fische, Siidsee, ii, p. 186 (not Bloch). 



Eleotris macrocephalus, Giinther, 1. c. t. cxii, f. B. 



Page 323. Add 



Family— TRICHONOTID^, Gunther. 



Branchiostegals seven : pseudobranchise. Gill-openings wide. Body elongated, sub-cylindrical. The 

 infraorbital ring of bones does not articulate with the preopercle. Teeth mostly villiform. One or two dorsal 

 fins occupying almost the entire length of the back, when there are two, the first is short and the anal 

 similar to the second dorsal. Fin rays branched. Ventrals jugular with one spine and five rays. No 

 prominent papilla near the vent. Scales cycloid of moderate size. Air-bladder and pyloric appendages 

 absent. 



The fishes of this family have been variously located. A species of Hemeroccetes was 

 placed by Forster and also by Schneider among the Callionymidce, and near which Cuv. 

 and Val. considered it should be located. Dr. Giinther (Catal. Fishes Brit. Museum, 

 ii, p. 225) observed that it " is not an Acanthopterygian fish, all its fin rays being 

 articulated." Subsequently he remarked (1. c. iii, 1861, p. 484), that the affinities of these 

 fishes are very obscure, and instituted an Acanthopterygian family for their reception, 

 observing that the ventral fin had one spine and five rays, he placed it between the 

 Ophiocephalidse and Cepolidffi, and in 1880 he located it among the Acanthopterygii 

 Blenniifomies. Steindachner, in 1867, suggested that a species he described might 

 possibly be a type of labroids, but the example was too small to examine the pharyngeal 

 bones. 



Geographical distribution. — Small fishes of the seas and coasts of India, and the Malay 

 Archipelago to New Zealand. 



Genus V. — Trichonotus, Bl. Schn. 



Head depressed and painted, with the lower jaw the longer. Cleft of mouth deep, almost 

 horizontal, the lower jaw the longer. Eyes of moderate size, closely approximating. Conical 

 teeth in jaws, vomer, and palatine bones. One long dorsal fin, the first few rays may be 

 elongated, or else slightly detached. 



Habitat. — Andamans to the Malay Archipelago. 



1. Trichonotus setigerus. 



Bl. Schn. p. 179, t. xxxix ; Cuv. and Val. xii, p. 316 ; Bleeker, Celebes, v, p. 251 ; 

 Gunther, Catal. iv, p. 484. 



