;">'H> FISTULAIUI'.K. 



t'j be scarcely Aisible. Greenish-olive, with lilue spots and stripes 

 along the upper parts of the head and body. 



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



a. Adult : bad state. Uahia. Purchased of M. Parzudaki. 



h. Adult : stuffed. liio Janeiro. Presented by A. Pry, Esq. 



c. Adult, ^^'est Indies. From Mr. Scrivener's Collection. 



(I. Adult : bad state. Prom the Ilaslar Collection. 



.'. Half-grown : bad state. "NVestci-n coast of Central America. 



Collected by Captain Dow ; presented bj^ 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 si)Ccimen is very small, and probably belongs to this species. 



Desa-iption. — I'hc head is produced into a long depressed tube, 

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

 is one-third of the total (the caiulal filament not mcluded). 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 styliforra. half as long 

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

 gate, and somewhat dilated JDosteriorly ; 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 which the tube apparently 

 is not thicker thaji 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 Avith a series of small teeth ; the vomerine series is 

 very short. 



The ujiper 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 ])y ridges which jirc contiuciit on the middle of the eth- 

 moid bone, and more divergent posteriorly than anteriorly , the lateral 

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

 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 Avidth being less than the vertical diameter 

 of the orbit. CroAvn of the head flat, Avith a bundle of longitudinal 

 stria; 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 

 sui'face of the head. The operculum is tAA'ice as long as high, stri- 

 ated, and obtusely rounded behind ; the suboperculum occupio!? a 

 triangular space between the operculum and prai^operculum, and is 

 carried backAvards along the inferior .margin of the opercle. I'rrc- 

 operculuni Avith numerous erenulated stria>, and Avith its posterior 

 portion very short and occupying a nearly horizontal situati**n ; the 



