CONG Kill 1).1".. Ill 



the other. The pahatine teeth are hiserial, the rows benig reguhir, 

 with a space between thein and the inner row I'ather taller and 

 abutting against the nasal disk before the vomerine teeth. Man- 

 dibular teetli like the palatine ones, and hiserial, but at the syna- 

 physis there are three rows, the posterior row being formed by 4 

 acicular teeth behind the other two rows. Lower jaw nearly as long 

 as the obtuse snout. Dorsal commencing over the axilla of the 

 pectoral. Gill-openings nuher large, the space between them on 

 the throat about equal to the length of one opening. Colour bkiisli- 

 gray above, pale or whitish below; the fins pale and edged with 

 black. [Richardson.) 



Length, 9 in. To gill-opening, TOJ in. To anus, 2-7 in. To 

 dorsal, I'l 5 in. 



China Seas (Sir Edward Belcher). 



Genus 44. CONGER, Cuvier. 



Anterior nostrils issuing near the end of the snout in short 

 tubes ; posterior nostrils opening before the large eyes. Palatine 

 and vomerine teetli slender, but chisel-shaped at the points, 

 and standing so closely in a line as to produce an incisorial 

 edge. 



194. Conger vulgaris. 



Conger vulgaris, Ciiv. Bec/u. An. 2. 



Congrus vulgaris, Richardson, Ereb. d Terr. p. 107. 



Congrus leucophseus. Id., p. 108. 



Murtena conger, Block, 155. 



Diagn. The pectoral, when laid back, passes by a third part of its 

 length the commencement of the dorsal. Head depressed. Dia- 

 meter of the eye contained twice in the length of the snout, anil 

 once and a half in the height of the head, measured on a line pass- 

 ing vertically through the pupil. 



The skull of the common Conger of the British Channel has 

 much the same shape posteriorly with that of Murcena, but the 

 hypotympanic pedicle of the lower jaw inclines forwards, so that the 

 strong bony preoperculum, and equally large but thinner inter- 

 operculura, do not project backwards beyond the occiput. The 

 operculum, which is also strong and moderately large, has a deep 

 crescentic notch in its upper border, embracing more than a quarter 

 of the otherwise circular circumference of the bone. The narrow 

 meniscoid suboperculum borders the under half of the operculum. 

 Taken together, the gill-plates and the branchiostegous rays are 

 not inferior in size and strength to those of many acanthopterygian 

 fishes, and far exceed the delicate and diminutive opercula of the 



