FISHES OF THE PHOENIX AND SAMOAN ISLANDS 17 



nostrils, and a pair of pores on under side of snout in front of 

 anterior tubular nostrils. 



Color consists of pale tip to snout ; then a pale brown bar with a 

 narrow pale bar at front of eyes, thence 14 black saddles to the anus, 

 the latter being under the fourteenth, and 14 more behind the anus. 

 The black bars on the trunk extend a little below the lateral line, the 

 ventral part of the body abruptly paler; the bars on the tail have 

 their ventral niargins curved and progressively extend nearer the 

 niidventral line, the last tw^o almost meeting; tip of tail white. The 

 dorsal and anal fins are pale except where the last black bar extends 

 a little on each fin. The pectoral fin is pale. 



Remarks. — This species differs from the only other known species 

 in the genus in the shape and arrangement of the black saddles or 

 bars on the body. An examination of one of Fowler's types shows 

 that the black saddles continue as diffuse pigment areas ventrally to 

 midline of belly. Fowler's drawing indicates a nnich smaller eye 

 than in phoeiiixensis; the eyes of the latter are a little longer in 

 diameter than the interorbital space and are contained li/4 ivl the 

 snout instead of twice as in 31. vander-bilti. 



Named jyhoenixensis in reference to the Phoenix Islands, because 

 it was taken on Canton Island of this group. 



Genus BRACHYSOMOPHIS Kaup 



Brachi/somophis Kaup, Catalogue of the apodal fish iu the collection of the British 

 Museum, p. 45, 1856; Arch. Naturg., vol. li'2, p. 9, 1856. (Type, B. horridus 

 Kaup. ) 



This genus needs redefining, but the National Museum lacks ma- 

 terial for such a study, and during the war it is not possible for me 

 to obtain it. Brachysoiiiophk Tiorndus is figured by Kaup and again 

 by Bleeker in his Atlas, plate 10, figure 3, but in both of these figures 

 the shape of the head and snout does not resemble my Samoan Island 

 specimens. The arrangement of the teeth as figured by Bleeker for 

 hmmdus does not agree with my specimen (see fig. 2, A). Now horri- 

 dus has been referred to the synonymy of B. crocodilinus (Bennett) by 

 authors who have been in a position to examine the specimens in the 

 museums of Europe. Weber and de Beaufort, in their "Fishes of the 

 Indo-Australian Archipelago," define the genus Brachysomojyhis as 

 well as the family Ophichthyidae as having the tongue not free. 

 However, examination of the specimens that I describe as a new species 

 below, as well as the type of BrachysoTnophis henshawi Jordan and 

 Snyder, shows the tip of the tongue to be definitely free. In view of 

 these, and tlie differences in dentition between the rather vague 

 crocodilinus^ it seems best to describe as new the specimens collected 

 bv me in the Samoan Islands. 



