74 GOBinm 



height of the body is contained seven times and a half in the total length, and the 

 length of the head four times and a half in the same. Head elongate, nearly twice as 

 long as high, with the snout somewhat prominent and longer than the diameter of the 

 eye. Lower jaw longest. Eyes close together, and a quarter of the length of the 

 head. No spine at the angle of the praeoperculum. Outer series of teeth slightly 

 enlarged, with a small canine at each side of the lower jaw. Each dorsal spine is pro- 

 duced into a short filament ; the last dorsal and anal rays are also somewhat produced. 

 The caudal is acutely rounded. 



Colour of the body pearly, with four broad brown cross bands, the anterior and pos- 

 terior edges of which are darker : the first is below the five anterior dorsal spines ; the 

 second corresponds to the interspace between the dorsal fins ; the third is below the 

 end of the soft dorsal ; and the fourth is across the caudal. There is a rudimentary 

 band in the interspaces between each pair, the first being across the neck. A straight 

 silvery blue band from the lower part of the maxillary to the upper angle of the oper- 

 culum, and a faint blue line (disappearing after death) from the lower anterior margin 

 of the eye to the middle of the intermaxillary. The first dorsal is brownish, with some 

 white marks and a large black white-edged ocellus on the summit. The second dorsal 

 is yellowish white, with a blackish band along the middle and two round black spots on 

 its base. The anal is shaded with yellow, white, and pale brown, with a dark-brown 

 margin. 



Length 3^ inches. 



Zanzibar. 



We have named this species after Swinburne Ward, Esq., Her Majesty's Civil Com- 

 missioner for the Seychelles. 



250. Eleotris fusca. [559, 642.] 



Poecilia fusca, Bl. Schn. p. 453. 



Cheilodipterus culius, Buck. Ham. Fish. Ganges, p. 55, pi. 5. f. 16. 



Eleotris nigra, Quoy &; Gaim. Voy. Uran. p. 259, pi. 60. f. 2 ; Cuv. fy Vol. xii. p. 233. 



niauritianus, Benn. Proc. Comm. Zool. Soc. i. p. 166. 



Eleotris fusca, Giinth. Fish. iii. p. 125. 



Fresh water of Seychelles and Johanna. Pangani River, east coast of Africa. Mada- 

 gascar, Mauritius, and thence to Polynesia. 



251. Eleotris soaresi, sp. n. Plate IX. fig. 4. [405.] 



D. 6 | \. A. J. L. lat. 62-63. 



Very closely allied to E. fusca and to E. melanosoma ; differing from the former in 

 having the cheeks and lower half of the gill-apparatus entirely naked ; it has a broader 

 snout and a more prominent head ; from the latter it is distinguished by smaller scales. 



