MURENID.E. 61 



but the belly parts are homogeneous. The head and lower jaw are 

 spotted with brown ; the ground colour of the lower jaw and throat 

 approaches to white ; and three of the bands which belong to the 

 nape and throat are less complete, being decomposed more or less 

 into irregular spots. The intervals between the bauds on the belly 

 are nearly aurora-red ; while the intervals on the dorsal and anal 

 are white on the edge. The anal is banded like the doi'sal ; but 

 not spotted as that fin is. 



Length, 1"2'5 in. Distance between the tip of the snout and the 

 anus, 5 '5 in. Distance between ditto and the gill-opening, T5 in. 

 [Richardson.) 



Indian Ocean (Block). Sea of Borneo {Sir E. Belcher). 



114. MUB-ENA OOELLATA, f. 50. 



Muraena ocellata. Rich., Ereh. S Terr. 82, pi. 47, f. 6-10. 

 Gymnothorax ocellatus, Agassiz, Pise. Bras. Sjn^'ii, 91, t. L. 6, 



f. 6-9. 

 Murene pintade. Quay et Gaim. Freyc. Toy. pi. 52, f. 2 ; Jemjns, 



Voy. of Beagle, 145. 

 Murtenophia variegata, Castelneau, t. 42, f. 2. 



Thickly studded, on the back and sides, by rounded and oval 

 spots of various sizes, none of them exceeding a pea in magnitude. 



The teeth, which stand in a single series on all the bones, are 

 much compressed, with sharp edges, tapering and very acute, most 

 of them finely serrated behind and before, the serratures being 

 most readily seen near the base behind. The highest teeth stand 

 on the palatines and fore part of the mandible, and they are there 

 more widely set. On the palatines their outline is narrowly lan- 

 ceolate, as are also the lateral ones on the mandible. The 3 

 mesial teeth exist, as usual, on the nasal disk, and they are serrated 

 like the others; but they are scarcely so high as the front marginal 

 teeth, and have been partly broken away in the specimen which 

 we have figured (pi. 47, Ereh. d Terr.). The vomerine teeth, small 

 and acute, are hidden by the soft parts. 



This murrey has a blunt snout, a large eye, and a more than 

 usually tapering tail, with a narrow tip. The dorsal commences a 

 little before the gill-opening, and rises very gradually, but is not 

 high anywhere. The position of the anus varies in difterent indi- 

 viduals. The specimen which is figured has the vent one-fourteenth 

 part of the whole length before the middle ; two others have it 

 respectively at the twelfth and the nineteenth part. The lateral line, 

 formed by a series of pores in the middle of the height, is conspi- 

 cuous. The ground colour, after long maceration in spirits, is hair- 

 brown, which, on close examination, is found to be produced by a 

 minute reticulation of darker and paler lines. About 30 black 

 spots on the dorsal, and 15 on the anal, alternate with white 



