530 FisTrLAEiD.i.':. 



to be scarcely visible. Greenish-olive, with blue spots and strijDes 

 along the npper parts of the head and bodJ^ 



Tropical parts of the Atlantic. Western coast of Central America. 



a. Adult: had state. Bahia. Purchased of M. Parzudaki. 



b. Adult : stuffed. Rio Janeiro. Presented by A. Ery, Esq. 



c. Adult. West Indies. From Mr. Scrivener's Collection. 



d. Adult : bad state. From the Haslar Collection. 



e. Half-grown : bad state. Western coast of Central America. 



Collected by Captain Dow ; presented by Dr. P. L. Sclater, 

 Seer. Zool. Soc. 

 /. A very young specimen, caught near St. Thomas's Island (Gulf of 

 Guinea) by the Zoologist of the Congo Expedition, proves the 

 occurrence of the genus on the African side of the Atlantic. 

 The specimen is very smaU, and probably belongs to this species. 



Description.— The head is produced into a long depressed tube, 

 terminating in a mouth of moderate wdth. The length of the head 

 is one-third of the total (the caudal filament not included). The 

 cleft of the mouth is horizontal, extending nearly as far backwards 

 as the maxillary. The lower jaw is prominent, and terminates in a 

 fleshy knot ; upper lip very distinct, separated from the intermax- 

 illary by a deep groove. The intermaxillary is styliform, half as long- 

 as the maxillary, and not protractile ; the maxillary is rather elon- 

 gate, and somewhat dilated posteriorly ; the mandible has two deep 

 longitudinal furrows on its outer surface. The membrane which 

 unites the jaw-bones is very wide and lax, allowing of great dilata- 

 tion of the mouth ; and in a specimen in wliich the tube apparently 

 is not thicker than the little-finger of a man, tube and mouth can be 

 so expanded that the thumb can easily pass. The jaws and palatine 

 bones are armed with a series of small teeth ; the vomerine series is 

 veiy short. 



The upper surface of the head is covered with a very thin skin. 

 The middle portion of the tube is more elevated than the lateral ones, 

 and formed by ridges which are confluent on the middle of the eth- 

 moid bone, and more divergent posteriorly than anterioi-ly , the lateral 

 edge of the tube is very indistinctly serrated, or rather crenulated. 

 The eye is elongate, ovate, much longer than high ; its horizontal 

 diameter is one-half the length of the portion of the head behind 

 the orbit ; it is protected by prominent angles of the frontal bones 

 anteriorly and posteriorly ; the bony bridge between the orbits is 

 concave and narrow, its width being less tlian the vertical diameter 

 of the orbit. Crown of the head flat, vn\h a bundle of longitudinal 

 striae on each side. The nostrils are close together, one before the 

 other, in front of the anterior angle of the orbit and on the upper 

 surface of the head. The operculum is twice as long as high, stri- 

 ated, and obtusely rounded behind ; the suboperculum occupies a 

 triangular space between the operculum and prteoperculum, and is 

 carried backwards along the inferior margin of the opercle. Pras- 

 operculum with numerous crenulated striae, and with its posterior 

 portion very short and occupying a nearly horizontal situation ; the 



