MUE^NID^. 83 



close-set, acute, compressed teeth, and in succession by 10 larger 

 reflex, narrowly-lanceolate ones, which are sensibly larger the nearer 

 they are to the corner of the mouth. 



This Murccna is considerably compressed, with a swelling throat, 

 a pretty large gape, and the dorsal commencing by an abrupt curve 

 about midway between the eye and the gill-opening. The fin is 

 high, and the investing fold of skin being rather thin, its rays are 

 more than usually visible. (In the young fish, the rays are more 

 distinct, and there is a trace of pores on the lateral line.) The 

 anus is one-eleventh of the whole length of the fish anterior to the 

 middle. Colour, after maceration in spirits, purplish- or brownish- 

 black, without spots, the ventral surface being paler. The dorsal is 

 traversed by fine oblique lines of a darker hue, for the most part 

 seven or eight in the height at any one point. The anal, which is 

 low, has fewer lines, and the two fins are narrowest at their union 

 round the tip of the tail. The folds of throat are marked out by 

 fine black lines. 



Length, 22 in. To anus, 10'5 in. To gill-opening, 2 in. 

 Height of body, 125 in. Circumference, 3 in. Height of dorsal 

 fin, 0-75 in. 



Puerto Caballo (British Museum). In the Paris Museum there 

 is a larger specimen, presented by Count Castelneau. 



150. Thyesoidea maoulipinnis. 

 Thyrsoidea maculipinnis, Kaup. 



Biagn. Dorsal distinct, traversed by many horizontal black lines 

 and light-brown spots of irregular form. 



Nasal teeth, 10, uniserial, pretty tall, subulate, and very acute; 

 4 in front, with small ones in the intervals. Mesial teeth, 3 taller; 

 vomerines, 7 or 8, very short, in one row, and not standing alter- 

 nately to right and left; palatines, 12, narrowly lanceolate, the 

 most anterior 2 being small, the middle ones larger, and the poste- 

 rior ones decreasing towards the corner of the mouth. A single, 

 pretty tall, movable, interior tooth, on the fore part of the hone, ren- 

 ders the arrangement biserial. Mandible, armed in the fore part of 

 each limb, by 3 tall stout teeth, and a small one placed a little ex- 

 terior to each interval ; these are followed by 16 shorter, compressed, 

 acute teeth. 



This species has a pretty close resemblance to the lineo-pinnis 

 (149); but its head is more slender and longer, and the tubes of 

 the anterior nostrils do not stretch beyond the contour of the snout. 

 It has traces of oblique lines on the dorsal, togetlier with irregular 

 lighter brown spots on the dorsal and adjoining part of the 

 back. The tail is longer than the body by about the length of the 

 head. 



Western tropical Africa. Gold Coast (Leyden Museum). 



