64 CATALOGUE OF FISH. 



pell's plate of M. ophis has a still closer resemblance in colour and 

 markings to similis than variegata has ; but the shortness of the 

 gape distinguishes ophis from the present species. The specimen 

 in the British Museum, from which the above description was taken, 

 is from Japan, and is marked " MurcBnophis, Faun. Jap." Not 

 knowing what appellation the authors of the Fauna Japonica mean 

 to give it, I have termed it similis, to denote its general close resem- 

 blance to variegata and ophis. I would gladly have adopted 

 Forster's name echidna as a specific appellation for this species ; 

 but it has been applied by Schneider to variegata, and would lead 

 to confusion if used to designate another species. Lacepede's 

 Muranophis echidna, which, he says, has a very large gape, brist- 

 ling with many teeth, cannot be variegata. He refers to Ellis, in 

 Cook's third voyage, as his authority ; but on turning to that work 

 I find only the following sentence : " Amongst these were some 

 large eels, beautifully spotted, which, when followed, would raise 

 themselves out of the water and endeavour, with an open mouth, 

 to bite their pursuers." (Fo?/. to Pacif. hy Capt. Cook, Clerke, and 

 Gore, 1776-80, vol. i., p. 219. Lond. 1784.) {Richardson.) 



118. Murj:na punctata. 



Mursena punctata, Rich., Ereb. S Terr. 83. 

 Gymnothorax punctatus, Bloch, Sch. Syst. 526. 

 Calamaia paum, Rtiss. xxxii. 



Diagn. Ground colour, brown, with numerous irregular yellowish 

 spots. 



A dried, overstuffed, and not quite perfect specimen of a Murcena. 

 exists in the British Museum, which possesses the characters 

 ascribed by Schneider to punctata.* It was purchased from a 

 dealer, and its place of capture cannot be ascertained. Russell's 

 figure is a pretty good representation of the fish. 



Teeth in a single series on the several bones. On the border of 

 the nasal bone there are 14, which are compressed, with acute 

 edges and points. Three tall, subulate, slender ones on the mesial 

 line of the disk, and 5 short, slender, and very acute ones on the 

 line of the vomer, the series commencing at some distance from 

 the nasal disk. Ten or eleven on each palatine bone, shorter and 

 scarcely wider than the nasal ones, reflex, more closely set, and 

 diminishing in size towards the corner of the mouth. Eleven or 

 twelve lateral teeth on the mandible, closely set, equal in size, com- 

 pressed, acute, and reflex, with 2 much stouter and a little taller, 

 widely set in the same series on eacli side of the symphysis. 



* Schneider's account of the species is, " Oijiiin. punclaius, [Dentium jyalatinorzim 

 longa serie) cnrpore compresso, color ehrunneo, maculis jxi-rvis aurantiacis, ovalihus, 

 limbo brunneo, pinna dorsi ante s^nracida exorta, ricUi angustiore antecedeniibus, 

 naribus tubulosis, maxilla superiore longiore. Longus 2 j ijed. Variat punciis 

 fiavis; h. punctis et maculis brunneis." 



