290 24 



The alimentär}' canal is for the greater part of its extent without mesen- 

 ter}'; only about the last 4th part is provided with a mesenterj'; the whole alimen- 

 tary canal is without curvatures, completely straight; compared with thai of Aulo- 

 sioina it is much longer, the anal opening lying much farther behind the ventrals, 

 just in front of the anal fin as in most fishes. The oesophagus and stomach form 

 together a long spindle-shaped part, by far the widest portion of the whole tract; 

 the posterior pyloric part of the stomach is more muscular and narrow, sharply 

 marked off from the intestine. Internally oesophagus and stomach are provided 

 with longitudinal folds; the length of both together is two-thirds ofthat of the rest 

 of the intestinal canal. The small intestine sends out from its front end one, conical, 

 not very long appendix pylorica; the intestine commences about at a level behind 

 the ventral fins, is widest anteriorly and tapers quite gradually backwards; the 

 posterior fourth part is the rectum; the boundary between it and the small intestine 

 is not very pronounced externally, no sudden change in width being found. As 

 just mentioned the rectum and hindmost part of the adjacent intestine are suspended 

 by a mesentery. In the pyloric part of the stomach of a large F. petimba from the 

 Formosa Strait I found 8 small fishes, the longest ca. 50 mm-, all belonging to the 

 same species of the genus Bregmaceros, and more or less digested; of those most 

 digested the otoliths were completely intact. * 



The liver is small reaching only over half the length of the stomach, not 

 lobed, pointed posteriori)', covering somewhat more of the ventral right side of the 

 stomach than of the left. Quite near the posterior end the right margin has an 

 incision for the gall-bladder, from which the biliary duct runs backwards following 

 the intestinal artery and the portal vein, enclosed together with these in a peri- 

 toneal fold, like a kind of low mesentery along the stomach; it enters the intestine 

 on its ventral side, imniediatelj' behind the base of the appendix pylorica. 



The air-bladder is about twice the length of the liver, reaching from below 

 the first of the coalesced vertebrae to the end of the last; here the main cavity of 

 the bladder stops, but its posterior end sends out a pair of long, conical blind-sacs 

 tapering to a point backwards and lying one on each outer side of the kidneys 

 below the long and expanded transverse processes of the anterior free vertebrae; 

 they are somewhat asymmetrical, the right reaching just behind the ventral fins, 

 the left stopping just in front of them. About in the middle, a little behind it, the 

 ventral wall of the main chamber contains a large, ovoid "red body"; at this spot 

 the under-face of the air-bladder is tightly fastened to the stomach through a short 

 "stalk", containing the principal vessels for the "rete mirabile", branches from the 

 arteria coeliaca and the portal vein. The heart, the air-bladder, except its two 

 prolongations, the whole liver and the greater part of the stomach, except its 

 pyloric part, are enclosed in the "armoured" part of the trunk, protected on the 

 sides and below by the large postclavicula and the coracoidal plates. The heart 

 is situated between the distal branches of both clavicles and over the front ends of 

 both coracoidal plates, the bulbus arteriosus lying over the hind end of the urohyal. 

 ■ Also Kner (28 b) p. 29 (2Ü0) has found a small tisli in the stomach of a Fistularia. 



