82 



by bars. The areas throughout are traversed by fine, dark 

 lines, like veins in marble, and on the head and throat the 

 mesh-like arrangement gives place to a fine mottling of the 

 dark brown, with a paler colour in smaller quantity. No 

 traces of this mottling are perceptible in any of the exam- 

 ples of M. «M6<7a. In the specimen the dorsal fin ends 

 abruptly about an inch from the point of the tail, the anal 

 being perfect. The defect appears to have arisen from 

 mutilation before death. 



Length of the fish (dried) .... .... 4r50 inch. 



From tip of snout to anus .... .... 10"75 



From ditto to gill-opening .... 6*01 



Hab. Coasts of the Mauritius. 



MUR^NA RETICULATA. Bl., 416. 

 Gymnolhorax reticulalus, Bl. Schn. p. 528. Bl. 416. 



Teeth compressed-subulate, disposed in a single series 

 on both jaws. The nasal teeth, about fourteen in number, 

 are a little more remote, and the palatine ones are more 

 compressed, closer, more reflex, and diminish in size as 

 they approach the corner of the mouth, but there is no 

 sudden change in the series, either of form or height. The 

 palatine teeth number about ten, and the series on the 

 mandible corresponds generally with that of the upper 

 jaw. The usual three mesial teeth exist on the nasal disk, 

 and there are about seven small, acute vomerine teeth in 

 one row. When the teeth are examined with a lens the 

 maxillary ones and those on the anterior part of the lower 

 jaw are seen to be minutely crenated towards the base 

 posteriorly, and beneath the crenatures is a compressed, 

 rounded lobe, which is inserted into the gum. 



Eye moderate-sized. Posterior nostrils not tubular. 

 Snout obtuse. Profile full, slightly arched. Gape mode- 

 rate. Dorsal commencing before the gill-opening. Throat 

 plaited, distensible. Anus one-twelfth part of the whole 

 length before the middle of the fish. 



Ground colour pale honey-yellow, with about twenty 

 dark, hair-brown bands, encircling the body and dorsal 

 fin. The intervals are about equal to the bands in 

 breadth, and are marked with round, brown dots, inter- 

 mixed with many minute brown specks. The upper parts 

 of the bands are formed of a close assemblage of dots and 

 spots, but the belly parts are homogeneous. The head 

 and lower jaw are spotted with brown, the ground co- 

 lour of tlie lower jaw and throat approaches to white, and 

 three of the bands which belong to the nape and throat 

 are less complete, being decomposed more or less into ir- 

 regular spots. The intervals between the bands on the 

 belly are nearly aurora red, while the intervals on the dor- 

 sal and anal are white on the edge. The anal is banded 

 like the dorsal, but not spotted as that fin is. 



Length 12-5 inches. Distance between the tip of the 

 snout and the anus 55 inches. Distance between ditto 

 and the gill-opening 1'5. 



Hab. Indian Ocean (Bloch). Sea of Borneo (Sir E. 

 Belcher). 



MuE^NA OCELLATA. Agassiz (Gymnothorax). 



Murana tricolor. Banks et Soland. MSS. Parkins. Icon, in Bibl. 

 Banks, 2. Broussonnet MSS. Gymnothorax ocellatus,h^.'P'\ii:. linxa. 

 Spixii, p. 91, t. L. b. figs. 6—9. 



Plate XLVII., figs. 6—10. 



The individual figured in the plates was obtained some- 

 where in the Atlantic, but the exact locality was not noted. 

 A Brazilian specimen exists in the British Museum, and 

 there is another in the Museum at Haslar. 



The teeth, which stand in a single series on all the 

 bones, are much compressed, with sharp edges, tapering, 

 and very acute, most of them finely serrated behind and 

 before, the serratures being most readily seen near the 

 base behind. The highest teeth stand on the palatines 

 and fore part of the mandible, and they are there more 

 widely set. On the palatines their outline is narrowly 

 lanceolate, as are also the lateral ones on the mandible. 

 The three mesial teeth exist, as usual, on the nasal disk, 

 and they are serrated like the others, but they are scarcely 

 so high as the front marginal teeth, and having been partly 

 broken away in the specimen which we have figured, they 

 have been omitted by the artist in plan, figure 3. The 

 vomerine teeth, small and acute, are hidden by the soft 

 parts. 



This murrey has a blunt snout, a large eye, and a 

 more than usually tapering tail, with a narrow tip. The 

 dorsal commences a little before the gill-opening, and 

 rises very gradually, but is not high anywhere. The po- 

 sition of the anus varies in different individuals. The 

 specimen which is figured has the vent one-fourteenth 

 part of the whole length before the middle, two others 

 have it respectively at the twelfth and the nineteenth part. 

 The posterior nasal openings are not tubular. The lateral 

 line formed by a series of pores in the middle of the 

 height is conspicuous. The ground colour after long ma- 

 ceration in spirits is hair-brown, which, on close exami- 

 nation, is found to be produced by a minute reticulation 

 of darker and paler lines. It is thickly studded by round- 

 ish and oval spots of various sizes, on the back and sides, 

 none of the spots exceeding a pea in magnitude. About 

 thirty black spots on the dorsal and fifteen on the anal, 

 alternate with white marks. Towards the end of the tail 

 the spots are larger, and form bars. 



All. spec. 



Total length 175 



From snout to anus .... 7'5 

 „ gill-opening 2;35 



2n(l do. Braz. spec. 

 12-5 19-5 



5-5 9-25 



1-42 2-58 



Hab, Western side of North Atlantic Ocean. Coast of 

 Brazil. 



A murrey taken in the Gulf of Mexico by Assistant-Sur- 

 geon Rayner, of the Royal Navy, and presented to the 

 Museum at Haslar, appears to be a slight variet3' of the 

 above. It has the same form and dentition, but the spots 

 on the body are much more numerous, and the fins, in- 

 stead of being distinctly banded, have a continuous black 



