FISHES OF THE DUKHUN. 377 
Order Apopes. 
Family Muranip2. 
Genus AneuiLxLaA, Cuvier. 
AnGuILLA ELPHINSTONEI. 
Tab. LXVII. Fig. 3. 
An Anguilla, with the lower jaw the longest ; with the back, tail, and anal fins united, and with a broadish, 
flat head; body dark green, blotched with black; with 2 short tubular processes, one on each side of 
the upper jaw. Attains the length of 3 feet, and diameter of 3 inches. 
Head wider than body; eyes very small and circular; irides yellowish: fish thick 
for the Eel family: the pectoral fins are small and with the longest rays in the centre ; 
the dorsal fin commences behind the shoulders and continues to the tail ; the rays in it 
are not very conspicuous from the thickness of the membrane ; the anal fin commences 
from the centre of the fish, and continues to the tail, the dorsal and anal fins uniting 
in the tail. The skin of this fish, in a mature state, is remarkably beautiful, being of 
a dark green, maculated black ; the spots being of irregular forms and running into 
each other occasionally. The breathing is by two small lunate spiracles close to the 
pectoral fins ; the nostrils have two fleshy processes ; the jaws and palate are set with 
minute teeth. A fish brought to me at Poona, measured three feet long by three inches 
in diameter—the fish being nearly cylindrical: flesh firm and sweet. The skin has a 
curious and beautiful appearance of minute plaited or basket-work. This fish has all 
the generic characters of the Anguilla of Shaw, and is an undoubted Eel ; but with the 
exception of the absence of mention of spiracles by Dr. Hamilton, has a certain cor- 
respondence with his Murena maculata of Lacepéde, which is, however, a sea-fish, 
with pointed head. It has the form of Chawloo Parnoo, or Malgumarus (Murena An- 
guilla, Linn.) of Russell’s ‘Fishes of the Coromandel Coast,’ but differs entirely in 
colour and in having cirri. I have dedicated this fine fish to the Honourable Mount- 
stewart Elphinstone. Its Mahratta name is ‘ Aheer.’ 
In concluding my characters of the fishes of Dukhun (Deccan), I may be allowed to 
state that I have found the number of cirri, whether in the Siluride or Cyprinide, 
insufficient as a generic character ; different species of the same genus varying in the 
number of their cirri. 
Note.—Although the preceding details respecting the Fishes of the Dukhun were comprised in a report pre- 
sented to the Court of Directors of the East India Company in June 1831, they were only communicated to the - 
Zoological Society on the 27th of November, 1838, almost contemporaneously with a communication made to the 
Asiatic Society of Bengal on the Indian Cyprinide, by John McClelland, Esq., Assistant-Surgeon in the Bengal 
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