90 



eleven taller, more distant, slenderly subulate, but not very 

 acute teeth. Fore half of the mandible armed by two 

 rows of teeth ; the outer row consisting of ten or eleven 

 close set low teeth, having compressed but not pointed 

 tips ; the inner row of five or six taller ones, of which the 

 two or three posterior ones are bent back and are more 

 acute. The posterior half of the jaw is set with low blunt- 

 ish teeth, alternating with others a little taller, somewhat 

 recurved, and standing a little within ; but the two sets 

 are so close that until very narrowly examined they appear 

 to form one uneven row. 



A slender species. Posterior nostrils not tubular. Un- 

 der jaw shorter than the upper one. Anus exactly in the 

 middle of the length. Colour liver-brown, finely reticu- 

 lated by grayish-white lines, forming small meshes, which 

 are roundish near the head and squarish elsewhere, but 

 they are not very visible unless when examined with the 

 aid of a lens, the general tint appearing to the naked eye 

 grayish-brown. 



Length C"2 inches. Distance between the end of the 

 snout and the anus 31 inches. Distance from ditto to 

 gill-opening 0"7;3 inch. 



Hab. Tonga Islands (Dr. Mc William). 



The only spotless Miirteua, mentioned in Solander's 

 notes of the fish observed by him in the South Sea, is the 

 M. erythroptera quoted below. 



MuR/ENA PAVONINA. Richardsou. 

 Miirana pnvonina, Ricliaidson, Voy. of Sulphur, p. 1 10, pi. 53, f. 1-6. 



Ten or twelve moderately tall, slightly recurved, acute, 

 uniserial, nasal teeth, with a minute tooth in each intei'val. 

 Three teeth on the mesial line, the posterior two being, as 

 usual, the tallest in the mouth. The vomerine series, com- 

 mencing at a considerable distance behind these, is com- 

 posed of five or six acute teeth. Palatine teeth biserial; 

 sixteen or seventeen in the outer row, compressed, subu- 

 late and acute ; with six tall, slender and acute ones, more 

 widely set in the interior row, which reaches about half- 

 way along the outer series. Each limb of the mandible is 

 armed by about nineteen subulate, slightly recurved teeth, 

 forming the exterior row, with a second row at the fore 

 end of the limb, composed of four tall, slender, acute 

 teeth. 



Body high and much compressed, with a broad dorsal, 

 which commences at a considerable distance before the 

 gill-opening, and becomes comparatively very narrow as it 

 rounds the end of the tail to join the anal. The gill- 

 opening is one-seventh of the whole length distant from 

 the end of the snout, and the vent is one-twentieth of the 

 length before the middle of the fish. The posterior open- 

 ings are tubular, forming long barbels ; the anterior ones 

 are more shortly so, and two ])ores at the ends of both 

 jaws are also prolonged into short tubes. 



Colour pitch-black, varied by regular oval spots, shaded 

 with brown. The spots are smaller on the head and fins. 



Length 9-6 inches. To anus 4-4. To gill-opening P4 

 inch. 



Hab. Southern Seas. 



This species would be readily distinguished from the 

 Calamnia pauin of Russell, or punctata of Schneider, by 

 the form of the spots, were they uniformly as large and 

 regularly oval, as in the example figured in the ' Ichthy- 

 ology of the Voyage of the Sulphur.' But the British 

 Museum possesses a dried skin of a murrey measuring 27^ 

 inches, which has small round spots, like Russell's fish 

 and the high barbels at the eyes of pavouina. Its general 

 appearance corresponds with that of the latter, but there 

 is only one row of palatine teeth, though the mouth being 

 injured makes it probable that the interior row may have 

 been broken away. 



[UR^NA GUTTATA. Solander. 



Murcena yuttata. Banks et Solander, MSS. Icon. pict. Parkinson, 

 1. Bib. Banks. Low, Fishes of Madeira, Tr. Zool. Soc. ii. p. 192. 



Solander, on Cook's first voyage, observed this fish at 

 Madeira and Rio Janeiro, and drew up the description 

 which is transcribed below, and Parkinson made a drawing, 

 which is preserved in the Banksian Library. The species 

 does not appear, however, to have been admitted into our 

 systematic works until the Rev. Mr. Low published it in 

 the Zoological Transactions, under a specific appellation, 

 which, though borrowed from Risso, is happily the same 

 with that originally given by Solander. Risso's guttata is, 

 according to the Prince of Canino, a variety of helena, 

 from which Solander's fish differs in its biserial palatine 

 teeth. The Muraua guttata of Forskal and Schneider 

 has pectorals, and is the Haliophis guttatus of Riippell. 



" M. GVTTATA, pinnis pectoralibus nullis, pinna dorsali 

 prope caput incipietite, corpore spadiceo punctis albis gut- 

 tata. ' Morea' Lusitanis Maderensibus. Habitat ad in- 

 sulam Maderam Oceano Allantico, etiam in Portu Fluvii 

 Sancti Januarii in Brasilia.'''' — " Corpus longum, parutn 

 coinpressum, nudum pone caput tumidiusculum. Caput 

 parvuut, conicum, antice compressum. Dentes in maxillis 

 et palato omnes discreti conico-subulati, acutissiini, majus- 

 culi, inaqnales : ma.vilhe inferioris unico ordine dispositi, 

 Jixi : maxiUcc superioris dupUci serie coUocati, e.iteriores 

 Jixi, interiores jlexiles. Palati pauci majores, Jie.viles. 

 Oculi inajusculi cute capitis communi tecti. Pupilla ni- 

 gra. Iris griseo-argentea. Annulus marginalis, glaucus. 

 Nares ex uno utrinque foramine parvo, rostro propriore, 

 tubuloso. Tentdcu/a quatuor laiiceolata, compressa, bre- 

 via, duo in apice rostri, duo supra ungulos anticos oculo- 

 rum. Pori seu foramina parva d utrinque in mandibula 

 superiore. Primus sub angulo postico oculi; secundus 

 sub angulo antico ; teriius sub nare ; quart us sub basi ten- 

 taculi ; ufi sextus prope apicem rustri. Pori sex in max- 

 illa iuferiore, fere in eodem ordine dispositi et prater hos 

 porulis plurimi ad ipsam marginem viaxill(B" 



" Spiraculum unicuui utrinque in medio latere, mox 

 pone caput, ohionguin, horizoutali. Linea lateralis recta, 

 dorso paulo propior. Anus ctipite paulo propior. Pinna 

 unica in toto pisce, carnosa, crassiuscula, cute tenaci in- 

 duta, ambiens (a pinnis dorsi, cauda, unique coadu- 



