77 



not separated by a notch at tlie symphysis. Adipose eyelid 

 rudimentary ; preorbital denticulated, its lower border with- 

 out conspicuous notch ; opercular bones entire ; gill-rakers 

 moderate, slender ; six brauchiostegals ; pseudobranchise 

 present ; upper jaw with a single series of small club-shaped 

 or crenulated teeth ; lower jaw with fine cilia ; vomer, 

 palatines, pterygoids, and tongue with patches of minute 

 teeth ; two dorsal fins, with iv. i 8 rays, the origin of the 

 first nearer to the base of the caudal than to the extremity 

 of the snout ; anal fin originating well in advance of and 

 more developed than the second dorsal, with iii 9 rays ; 

 ventrals moderate and rounded, with a rather feeble spine ; 

 pectorals small, obtusely pointed, with 16 rays, the upper 

 ones the longest, the second undivided and somewhat 

 stronger than the third ; caudal emarginate, with the lobes 

 acute ; scales moderate, mostly cycloid ; snout naked : 

 preorbital scaly ; no enlarged scale in the axil of the 

 pectoral ; a scaly process between the ventral fins. 



Deriv. — /.w^dv or /xv^os, a kind of fish, from fxO^a, slime. 



Type. — Myxus elongatus, Giinther. 



Myxtjs elongatus. 



Myxus elongatus, Gnth. Catal. Fish iii. ^. 466, 1861 ; 

 Kner, Vov. JSTovara, Fisch. p. 230, 1869 ; Macl. Proc. 

 Linn. Soc.'KS. Wales. 1879, iv. p. 426 ; Ogilby, Rep. Lord 

 Howe Isl. Fish, p 63, 1889, and Edib. Fish N.S. Wales, p. 

 128, pi. xxxiii. 1893. 



D. iv. i 8. A. iii 9. Sc. 42-46/14-15. 



Length of head 3|- to 4/^ depth of body S^V to 4 in 

 the total length ; width of head 1^-^ to 1^-^, of the 

 slightly convex interorbital region 2f to 2|, diameter of 

 eye 4 to 4f in the length of the head ; snout obtuse, 

 from one fifth to two fifths of a diameter longer than the 

 eye ; maxillary about as long as the diameter of the eye and 

 not reaching to the vertical from its anterior margin ; distal 

 end of the preorbital obliquely truncated, rarely rounded, 

 as wide or nearly as wide as the pupil, the posterior half of 

 the lower and the hinder borders strongly denticulated ; 60 

 to 64 gill-rakers on the lower branch of the anterior arch ; 

 body moderately stout and deep, the dorsal profile slightly 

 and evenly convex, less so than the ventral. The origin of 

 the spinous dorsal is a little nearer to the base of the caudal 

 than to the extremity of the snout ; the spines are rather 

 weak, the first straight or nearly straight, very little longer 

 than the second, its length 2 to "2\ in that of the head ; 



