CONGERID.E. 117 



The length of the snout and the dentition vary with age in this 

 species ; but the head is never so much elongated as in pristis. 

 When its jaws are shut, tlie front ujandibular teeth are concealed, 

 which is never the case with pristis. After examining a great num- 

 ber of Indian specimens, I have come to the conclusion that the 

 so-called species wliich 1 have ranged as synon3'ms of bagio, are 

 merely nominal. 



Chinese and Indian seas and estuaries. 



205. MUR.E.NEBOX SAVANNA, fig. 74. 



Conger savanna, Cuv. Paris Museum. 



La Savanna de Martinique, Cuv. Hegn. An. 11. 



Conger limbatus, Castelneau. 



The skin of the exceedingly broad snout is rendered uneven by 

 pits, which vanish towards tlie belly. A row of pores, running up 

 before the eye to the forehead, makes there a sharp angular inflec- 

 tion, and takes its course to the fore nostril-tube. Tlie diameter of 

 the e_>e measures less than half the length of the snout. The longest 

 teeth are two pairs of nasals, and the corresponding mandibulars. 

 The vomcrines, together with the principal row uf palatines, and 

 the mandibulars, are compressed laterally and rounded at the point. 

 All the rest of the teeth are very short and blunt. The fius are 

 greatly developed. 



Rays : Br. 1 7 ; D. 937. 



South America (Museums of London, Paris, and Leyden). 



The following species require to be more closely examined iu 

 order to ascertain their true position. 



206 ? CONGRUS CURVIDENS, Rich. 



Congrus curvidens, Rich., Ereh. S Terr. p. HI. 



Nasal teeth stoutly subulate, stronger than in other species, 

 ranged in a cluster without order, the tallest in the middle, fol- 

 lowed on the mesial 'line by 4 minute round ones in two rows, 

 which may be considered as the anterior vomerine ones. The 

 mesial row of tricuspid vomerine teeth, placed on the ridge of the 

 bone, which is arched, have oblique curved cusps, and are close set. 

 The lateral cusps are small, round, and at the root of the tooth, 

 in the posterior teeth the central cusps are worn down to the level 

 of the lateral ones. Small teeth on each side of the principal 

 series, rounded, not compressed, and of unequal sizes, not disposed 

 in rows, and seldom more than two abreast. Palatine teeth of tlie 

 principal row rounded on the crowns, but generally with a mesial 

 acute line : there is an irregular row of minute granular teeth on 

 the outside, and a band of 2 or 3 on the inside, with a furrow be- 

 tween them and the main series. The palatines abut against the 

 vomer at the sixth tooth. The mandibular teeth, instead of 

 being like the vomerine ones, as in the preceding species, more re- 



