110 PBOCEEDIXGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEOI, 



eye ; lower fins whitish ; upper pale ; dorsal fin with a black ocellus ; a 

 dark band across base of caudal. 



Head 3^ in length : depth, 2. D, 10 ; A, 9. Scales 24—12. 



26. Cyprinodon mydrua Goode & Bean. Pussy gut. 



(! Cyprinodon carpio Giintlier, vi, 306.) 



Exceedingly abundant in lagoons and shallow shores, A strongly- 

 marked species, larger than most others of the genus, reaching a length 

 of 3 inches. 



Body comparativey elongate, rather strongly compressed ; head large; 

 profile not very steep : fins rather low, the dorsal and anal not nearly 

 reaching caudal ; humeral scale not large? than the others. Eye in 

 adult 3t^ in head. Scales very thick and firm, those on lower parts of 

 body less reduced in size than usual. Pectorals reaching middle of 

 ventrals, which reach vent. Head, 3: dei>th,2|. D. 11; A. 9. Scales 

 24—9. 



Male in life, light olive : sides silvery, with six narrow faint bars of 

 copi>ery ; sides with a number of spots of bright clear yellow, besides 

 the blotches of orange found in the females. Lower jaw mostly golden : 

 three bright yellow strijies obliquely across the cheeks to the jaws. 

 Dorsal and caudal finely speckled with olive. Tip of dorsal orange, 

 as also the lower edge of caudal and anal; ventraLs orange-red; no 

 ocellus on dorsal. 



Female pale, with numerous blotches of light bright orange, these 

 mostly longitudinally oblong on upper parts and irregular or vertical 

 below ; sides of head marked with bronze ; lower jaw whitish ; fins 

 plain ; dorsal and caudal slighth' yellow. Young females with traces 

 of one or two dusky bars at base of caudal. Still younger specimens 

 (as in the original types; nearly jilain .silverv*. 



MURJENID-53. 



27. Sidera funebria (Ranzani;. Green Moray. 



{Gymnolhorax funehris Eanzani, Nov. Comm. Ac. Sci. Inst., Bonon., iv, 1840, 

 76; Mur(j>Ma afra Giinther, viii, 12.3; apparently not Gyranothorax afer 

 Bloch; Mur(Kna inftrnalis Fotj, Mem. Cuba, ii, 347.) 



Kather common, reaching an enormous size; a si^ecimen obtained be- 

 ing about five feet in length, and it is said to attain double that length. 

 It is not u.sed for food. It is much di.sliked by the fishermen, as its bite 

 is often serious, and it tangles or destroys tlicir lines. It lives in crev- 

 ices in the reefs, and it is said that it frequently bites oft' the heads of 

 cormoiaiits and other water birds who venture near its holes. 



In life it is bright yellowish-green, with some oblique dark streaks on 

 the fins; after death the green rubs off' readily, as a sort of slime, leav 

 iiig the skin brown beneath. In spirits the color is a uniform i)urplish- 

 brown. 



Tills is probabl\ not the Gymnothora^ afer of iJloch, described from a 

 specimen from the coast of Guinea, as afer is said to be brown, marbled 



