JA PA NESE OPHIDIOID FISHES— JORDA N AND FO WLER. 751 



Gill-membranes little connected, leaving- the isthmus bare. No dis- 

 tinct caudal fin; pectoral fins developed. The species of this genus 

 are not well known, and their characters and nomenclature are uncer- 

 tain. 



{Carapo^ the Portuguese name of Gyiii]wti(!<^ with which genus this 

 fish was supposed to be congeneric. In case the name Carapun is 

 regarded as a synonym of GymnotuH the name Fierasfer should be 

 restored.) 



5. CARAPUS KAGGSHIMANUS ( Steindachner and Ddderlein). 



Fierasfer kagoshimanna STFAyvAcn^KR and Doderlein, Fisc-he Japans, IV, 1887, 

 P- 27; 



Head 7i (in total); depth 13i (in total); eye If in snout; 3^ in 

 head; 2i in interorbital space; head 2i times as long as wide, and If 

 times as long as deep; pectoral 2f in head. Small teeth in both jaws, 

 Dn the vomer and palatines, the vomerine in a short band. Gill-open- 

 ings broad; the united gill-membranes joined only to a small part of 

 the isthmus. Vertical fins ver}' low. the dorsal no more than i the 

 [ength of the body; origin of anal below base of pectoral. Color uni- 

 form pink; top of head with fine black dots. Length -i^^ inches (110 

 aiillimeters). Locality, harbor of Kagoshima. (Steindachner and 

 Doderlein.) 



Not seen by us. 



Family IV. OPHIDIID.E. 



CrSK-EELS. 



Body elongate, compressed, more or less eel-shaped, usually covered 

 svith very small scales, which are not im]>ricated, but placed in oblique 

 ?eriesat right angles with each other; head large; lower jaw included; 

 both jaws, and usually vomer and palatines also, with villiform or 

 3ardiform teeth; premaxillaries protractile; gill-openings very wide; 

 the gill-membranes separate, anteriorl}^ narrowly joined to the isthmus 

 behind the ventrals; pseudobranchi8e small. Gills 4, a slit behind the 

 fourth; vent more or less posterior. Vertical fins lower, without 

 spines, confluent around the tail; tail isocercal; ventral fins at the 

 throat, each developed as a long forked barbel. A ir bladder and pylo- 

 I'ic ca^ca present. To this Dr. Gill adds also the following characters, 

 shared more or less by related families: " Orbitorostral portion of 

 jranium contracted and shorter than the posterior, the cranial cavity 

 3losed in part by the expansion and junction of the parasphenoid and 

 frontals, the supraoccipital horizontal and cariniform posteriorly, the 

 3xocci})itals expanded backward and upward behind the supraoccipi- 

 tal, the exoccipital condyles contiguous, and with the hypercoracoid 

 (scapula, Parker) fenestrate (or foraminate) about its center, and the 

 tiypocoracoid with its inferior process divergent from the proscapula.'' 



