86 



THE BANDED OPHISURUS. 



Gphisurus altemans, QuoY and Gaimard. 



PLATE I. 



Two specimens, only, of this curiously marked fish, 

 seem to have been procured during the voyage of 

 Freycinet, of no great size, but remarkably conspi- 

 cuous, from the regular and decided banding and 

 spotting with which the body is marked. The 

 ground-colour is of a delicate bluish-giey ; the bands, 

 amounting from thirty to thirty-two, of a deep rich 

 bro\Mi, and having from one to two round spots 

 occasionally placed in the intervals ; and the Na- 

 turalists who describe it, are of opinion that these 

 spots and bands become more numerous with the 

 age of the fish. The motion of this fish is described 

 to be very slow, and, looking at its form, we can 

 easily understand that will be very smooth and 

 gliding. The banded Ophisurus was discovered on 

 the coast of the island of Guam. 



There are a few other fishes also, whose ap- 

 pearance has gained for them such titles as Ophi- 

 surus and Ichthyophis^ where a bounding fin is 

 totally wanting to the body, and where the motions 



