97 



Snout broad, not overhanging the jaws; without barbels. Mouth wide. 

 Villiform teeth in bands on the jaws and palatines, and in a A-shaped band on 

 the vomer. 



Gill-openings wide: eight branchiostegals. Pseudobranchi* rudimentary 

 or absent. 



Dorsal and anal fins confluent with the caudal. The ventrals arisino- far 

 apart, on distinct bony bases, about midway between the pectorals and the 

 clavicular symphysis : each consists of two filaments. 



An air-bladder and pyloric caeca present. 



76. Tauredophidiuni Hextii, AJcock. 



Tauredophidium Hextii, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Sept. 1890, p. 213, pi. viii. fig. 1 : Iliostrations of the 

 Zoology of the Invesii&ator, Fishes, pl. XXI. fig. 3. 



D. 64. A. 58. C. 10. P. 18. V. 2. 



Head broad, pyramidal, its length about a fourth of the total, its bones 

 hard and firm. Greatest height of the body nearly equal to the length of the 

 head. 



The operculum, which is a short narrow bone, is armed with a great thick 

 spine half as long as the head : at the angle of the preoperculum are three 

 similar spines, the middle and longest one of which is three-fourths the length 

 of the opercular spine. The occipital crest projects as a coarse subcutaneous 

 eminence, and behind it the first ( ? ) neural spine projects similarly but more 

 strongly. 



The eyes are completely atrophied ; the small orbital cavities are hidden 

 beneath thick scaly skin, and are filled with connective tissue, deeply imbedded 

 in which is a small pigmented eyeball about the size of an ordinary pin-head. 

 Nostrils large. Muciferous cavities of snout and mandible well developed and 

 opening to the exterior by pores. Mouth large, its cleft nearly horizontal ; 

 maxilla more than half the length of the head, much expanded behind, com- 

 pletely including the lower jaw in repose. Teeth in narrowish \nlliform bands 

 in jaws, vomer, and palatines. Ten long pointed scabrous gill-rakers on the 

 first brancial arch, besides some rudimentary ones above and below. 



Scales in 22 rows between the dorsal fin and the vent. 



Vertical fins united; the dorsal begins just behind the vertical through 

 the base of the pectoral, its longest rays — about the middle of the fin — are 

 rather over one-third the maximum body-height and exceed the corresponding 

 anal rays in length. Caudal long and pointed. Pectorals entire, pointed, as 

 lonp' as the head without the operculum. Ventrals separated from each other 

 by an interspace equal to one-third the length of the head; each consists of two 

 13 



