89 



The bars contrast more strongly with the pale fins than 

 with the browner body. Length 8-4 inches. To anus 3-6. 

 To gill-opening 1 inch. 



Hab. New Britain, Aniboyna (Coinmerson apud Lace- 

 pede). Polynesia? (Solander). 



Solander also describes a M. rillala, but this derives its 

 name from a longitudinal stripe. 



" MuR/ENA viTTATA. Piscis siiprd intense e/mco brun- 

 neiis, vitta secundum medium dorsum e Jlavo albida, a 

 capite usque ad Jinem caiidce, subtus infra lined laterali 

 tolus sordide e luteo albescens. Oculi miuuii. Irisjla- 

 veo-aurea. Pupil/a nigra.'" " Eualha'''' aboriginorum. 

 (Banks et Solander, MSS. p. 78.) 



Hab. Society Islands. 



MUR.ENA MORINGUA, Cuv. 



Mureena maculata, nigra et viridis, Catesliy, t. 20. 

 Murtena morinyua, Cuv. Keg. An. 2. p. 



Radii :— D. .323 ; A. 232 = .5.55 (Jamaica spec). 



Nasal teeth twelve, tall, stoutly subulate, compressed, 

 with sharp edges, and generally two minute teeth between 

 each pair, all in one row. Three mesial teeth, and nine 

 very acute, shortly subulate vomerine teeth in one row. 

 Palatine teeth eighteen or nineteen, much compressed, 

 acute and reflex, the anterior three small, and succeeded 

 immediately by the tallest in the row, the following ones 

 decreasing as usual towards the corner of the mouth. In 

 one specimen there is a tall, slender tooth within the com- 

 mencement of the outer row, but this is absent in five or 

 six other specimens, having probably been broken away. 

 The mandible is armed anteriorly by three tall, stout, su- 

 bulate teeth on each limb, with two or three minute ones 

 between them, and laterally by about nineteen compressed, 

 acute teeth, forming an even, low series. 



Dorsal commencing between the nape and gill-opening. 

 Anus about a twenty-fourth part of the total length before 

 the middle of the fish. Gape of the mouth large. 



Ground colour pale, with dark, liver-brown spots of va- 

 rious sizes, from that of a pea downwards, and more or 

 less confluent, but generally retaining a roundish form. 

 The spots are smaller, rounder, and more distinct on the 

 head and more confluent near the end of tail, the pale 

 ground colour occupying, however, everywhere except on 

 the cheeks less space than the spots. The tint of the 

 spots is less deep on the bellj'. 



Length 23-5 inches. To anus 10-75 inches. To gill- 

 opening 3'4 inches. The species attains the length of 

 upwards of three feet. 



Cuvier refers to the Murcena maculata, nigra of Catesby, 

 t. 21, as the type of his moringua, but t. 20 agrees best 

 with most of the specimens we have examined. There is, 

 however, no very marked difference between the figures, 

 both being coarsely drawn. The British Museum possesses 

 a dried skin in which the pale inters]iaces are narrower, 

 and reduced nearly to the winding reticulations of M. thyr- 

 soidea. 



Hab. The Bermudas, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean 



MuR/ENA LiNEO-riNNis. Ilichard.son. 

 Radii -.—circiter D. 320; A. 100; = 480. 



Since the preceding sheet went to press, the British 

 Museum has purchased from Herr Brant, of Hamburgh, a 

 South American Murtena, labelled Munenophis snya, but 

 which is evidently widely different from the Nettastoma 

 saga of Rafinesque and Risso (vide p. 96). 



About ten pretty tall, compressed-subulate, very acute, 

 nniserial nasal teeth, and an equal number of small teeth 

 in the intervals. Three taller mesial teeth, and seven or 

 eight small acute vomerine ones, set alternately a little to 

 the right and left, so as to approach abiserial arrangement. 

 Fourteen narrowly lanceolate palatine teeth, the three an- 

 terior ones being small, the middle ones larger, and the 

 posterior ones decreasing gradually as they approach the 

 corner of the mouth. A single very slender, and not tall, 

 moveable interior tooth, at the fore part of the bone, renders 

 the arrangement biserial. The fore part of the mandible is 

 armed, on each limb, by four or five tall stout teeth, with 

 a small and rather more exterior one in each interval. 

 These are followed on the sides of the bone by six small, 

 close set, acute compressed teeth, and in succession by 

 ten larger reflex, narrowly lanceolate ones, which are sensi- 

 bly larger the nearer they are to the corner of the mouth. 



This MurcBua is considerably compressed, with a swell- 

 ing throat, a pretty large gape, and the dorsal commencing 

 by an abrupt curve about midway between the eye and the 

 gill-opening. The fin is high, and the investing told of 

 skin being rather thin its rays are more than usually visi- 

 ble. The anus is one-eleventh of the whole length of the 

 fish anterior to the middle. Colour, after maceration in 

 spirits, purplish- or brownish-black, without spots, the 

 ventral surface being paler. The dorsal is traversed by 

 fine oblique lines of a darker hue, for the most part 

 seven or eight in the height at any one point. The anal, 

 which is l(jw, has fewer lines, and the two fins are narrow- 

 est at their union round the tip of the tail. The folds of 

 throat are marked out by fine black lines. 



Length 22 inches. To anus 105 inches. To gill- 

 opening 2 inches. Height of body r25 inch. Circum- 

 ference 3 inches. Height of dorsal fin 075 inch. 



Hab. Puerto Caballo. 



MuR.«i\A GRISEO-BADIA. Richardsou. 



One row of close set, conico-subulate, nasal teeth, four- 

 teen or sixteen in number, the four posterior ones on each 

 side bent backwards at their middles. Two tall, slightly 

 recurved, moderately acute teeth on the mesial line ; and 

 about eleven small, round and obtuse vomerine teeth in 

 one row, but two of them standing a little out of line. 

 Palatine teeth biserial : the outer row composed of four- 

 teen close set, low, even, bluntish teeth ; the inner one of 



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