107 



Head small. Snout slender, acute, projecting much be- 

 yond the mandible. The tubular anterior nostrils placed 

 on each side near the tip. Throat elastic, from the inter- 

 lacing of the gill-rays, of which at least twejity-two can be 

 made out through the integuments, but it is jirobable that 

 the correct number is more. Gill-openings small, lateral. 



Body slender, round, vermiform, tapering a little towards 

 the acute point of the tail, which is very slightly com- 

 pressed. Pectoral minute, transparent, and scarcely visi- 

 ble, except by aid of a lens. It is supported by eight 

 rays. Thirty-three chestnut-brown bands, not quite meet- 

 ing on the belly, alternate with an equal number of rather 

 narrower white ones, the tip of the tail being dark. 



Length 8 incbes. To anus S'S inches. To gill-opening 

 0'5 inch. Height of body O'lS inch. 



Hab. China. 



CONGRUS. 



The British Museum possesses comparatively few Con- 

 gers, and I have not had an opportunity of examining an 

 extensive series elsewhere, but, as far as I have ascertained, 

 the genus differs from Aiiguilla by the definite character 

 of the absence of dermal scales, as well as by those noticed 

 by Cuvier in the Regiie Animal, — the more prominent 

 snout and forward origin of the dorsal fin. 



The species which I have seen maybe arranged by their 

 dentition as follows. 



1. Palatine and mandibular teeth slender, but chisel- 



shaped at the points, and arranged so closely as 

 to produce an incisorial edge. 

 Congrus vulgaris; C. leucophmus. 



2. Palatine and mandibular teeth acerose or acicular, 



and villiform. 

 C. ntyrus ; C. leptiirus. 



3. Teeth mostly conical, and more or less blunt. 

 C. habettatus. 



4. Vomerine teeth strong, compressed, sharp-edged 



and tricuspid. Mandibular teeth resembling the 

 . vomerine ones. (Mur.enesox, Mc Clelland). 

 C. jirolernis ; C. iriciispiclatus ; C. atigustidens ; C. 

 hrevicmpis ; C. hanio. 



5. Vomerine teeth tricuspid. Mandibular teeth like 



the palatine ones. (Mdr^nesox, Mc Clelland). 

 C. curvidens. 



Congrus vulgaris. Auctorum. 



MurcEiia coiir/er, Blocli, 1.55. 



The skull of the common conger of the British Channel 

 has much the same shape posteriorly with that of Murama, 

 but the hypotympanic pedicle of the lower jaw inclines 

 forwards, so that the strong bony preoperculum, and 

 equally large but thinner interoperculum, do not project 



backwards beyond the occiput. The operculum, which is 

 also strong and moderately large, has a deep crescenlic 

 notch in its upper border, embracing more than a quarter 

 of the otherwise circular circumference of the bone. Tiie 

 narrow meniscoid suboperculum borders the under half of 

 the operculum. Taken together, the gill-plates and the 

 branchiostegous rays are not inferior in size and strength to 

 those of many acanthopterygian fishes, and far exceed the 

 delicate and diminutive opercula of the MuramcB. A bone, 

 which may be considered as the confluent pterygoid and 

 entopterygoid, and which does not exist in A^urce na,haiS the 

 shape of a long plate, forming the floor of the orbit. Its 

 anterior end joins the prefrontal process of the vomer un- 

 derneath the groove, for lodging the olfactory nerve, and 

 its posterior end is ])artly confluent with the hypotymjjanic, 

 partly joined to it by suture. The palatine, as in Miirteini, 

 performs the ordinary function of the maxillary bone, but 

 it is shorter and stronger than in that genus, and is articu- 

 lated by a flat head to the side of the vomer and hinder 

 part of the small nasal disk, at the fore part of the olfactory 

 sac, close to the end of the snout, the prominent tip of the 

 snout being formed by the nasal disk or chevron. In Mu- 

 rcena, the articulation of the end of the palatine with the 

 preorbital process of the confluent vomerine and nasal 

 bones is just at the border of the orbit. In the common 

 conger, the large triangular preorbitar flanks the end of the 

 snout, covering the anterior third of the palatine. The 

 rest of the suborbitar chain remains in the condition of a 

 cartilaginous tube, except a short piece at the posterior in- 

 ferior angle of the orbit, which is ossified. The integu- 

 ments of the side of the snout, and part of the upper lip, 

 are strengthened by a tough ligamentous substance, ap- 

 proaching to cartilage in firmness. The Congrus mystax 

 is described by Laroche as having two transverse bony 

 rays in the upper lip of each side, but I cannot help sus- 

 pecting that he alludes to the preorbitar and the posterior 

 ossified portion of the suborbitar chain. In Congrus com- 

 munis, the uro-hyal is a strong bone, nearly cyliudiical in 

 the middle, dilated anteriorly, where it is attached to the 

 basi-hyals, which are confluent with the stout cerato-hyals, 

 and compressed posteriorly at its connection with the 

 lower points of the firm well-developed coracoid bones. 

 The gill-rays, nine in number, are also strong and rigid, 

 except towards their points, and all the pai-ts of the hyoid 

 bone and humeral arch are much firmer and stronger than 

 in Murcena or Ophisurus. The stomach is a long, thick, 

 cylindrical sac, with a short, narrow, slightly tapering, ob- 

 tuse, coecal process at its fundus. The pyloric orifice is 

 near the top, leaving eleven parts of twelve in the length 

 of the viscus beneath it, and the canal passes obliquely 

 through the coats of the stomach, ascending till it reaches 

 externally thejimction of the oesophagus; it then makes a 

 sudden turn, and runs downwards along the back of the 

 stomach, a valve being formed at the curve by an inflection 

 of the inner coat of the gut. At the lower quarter of the 

 stomach, the gut, still tied down to it by a short mesentery, 

 makes three loops, which, together with five or six valvular 

 inflections of the inner coat at the several curves, perform 

 in some degree the functions of a spiral valve, by detaining 

 the ali-nentary matters in their passage, and giving in- 



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