ON THE ICHTHYOLOGY OF THE SEAS OF CHINA AND JAPAN. 251 
to this family. Its rays are B. 6; D. 20|1; A. 15; ©. 12; P. 12; V. 2/4, the single soft 
dorsal ray being considered as anomalous among the Acanthopterygii. 
MAacroropus VIRIDI-AURATUS, Lacép. iii. p. 417. pl. 16, f.1; C. ét V. vii. 
is 
Hab. China, Cochin-china. 
Macroropus venustus, C. et V. vii. p. 375. M. ocellatus, Cantor, Ann. 
Nat. ix. p.28? “Rad. B.4; D.17|8; A. 20|12; C.12; P. 11; V.1|6.” 
(Cantor.) 
Hab. Canton (Dussumier). Chusan (Cantor). 
OsPHRONEMUS OLFAX, Commerson; C. et V. vii. p. 377. Osphronéme gou- 
rami, Lacép. iii. p. 117. pl. 3. f.2. Trichopus goramy, Shaw, iv. p. 388. 
Hab. China. Java. Naturalised in the Isle of France and Cayenne. 
OPHICEPHALUS MACULATUS, Lacépéde (Bostrychus), iii. p. 140 et 143; 
C. et V. vii. p. 437; Icon. Reeves, 148 et 8.19; Hardw. 251. Chinese 
name, Sing yu, “Living fish” (Reeves, Birch, Bridgem. Chrest. 121). 
Rad. D. 42; A. 1|27; C.22; P.16; V.1]5. (Spec. Camb. Phil. Inst.) 
Height of body one-sixth of total length, and rather more than half the length of the head. 
Teeth short and densely villiform, or rather finely card-like, with a cluster of longer ones at 
the symphysis, as in the Serrani. A portion of the dental surface projects forward at the apex 
of the lower jaw, and the teeth of the exterior row there and at the sides of the jaw are stronger 
than the rest. The palatine bonés are armed with stronger curved teeth, having smaller ones 
at their bases. Vomerine teeth small. Pharyngeal apparatus an oval cell capable of being 
closed by various lobes which spring from its borders. Scales ciliated, and strongly marked 
by curved streaks nearly parallel to their posterior edges. Lateral line interrupted over the 
anus, and commencing agaih on the second row of scales beneath, whence it runs straight to the 
end of the tail. Ground colour yellowish-brown, fading to broccoli-brown and bluish-gray on 
the belly. Large irregular blackish-browh spots in two or three rows on the sides, and ten 
.or eleven round spots along the base of the dotsal, which becomes dark towards thé edge, and 
in the figure shows obsturely three otlier rows of dark spots; these aré effaced in the speci- 
mens. The dnal also is dark on its outer half, and shows faintly a series of oblique bars. 
One blackish-brown stripe passes backwards from the eye along the temporal groove, and 
dilates on the side of the head and upper edge of the gill-cover; another crosses the cheek 
lower down, and passing over the lower border of the operculum, is continued to the base of 
the pectoral; the spacé between these is nearly filled by a paler umber«brown bar, which is 
bordered by the yellowish-brown ground colour. Thefe are also blackish-brown spots and 
bats. scattered over the nose, top of the head and jaws; and three imperféct bars on the pec- 
torals. The caudal in fig. 148 is uniformly dark, with two transverse bars on its scaly base. 
In figure (3. 19 the basal half of the caudal is straw-yellow, with four dark transverse bars, and 
the other vertical fins are also lighter with more definite bars. Length of specimen 53 inches; 
length from snott to anus, 2°45 inches; length of head, 1°6 inch; height of body, 0°9 inch. 
There is a difference in the numbers of the fin-rays in Mr. ReeVes’s two figures. 
The above description is drawn up of two specimens in the museum of the Cambridge Phi- 
losophical Institution, which were brought from Canton by the Rev. George Vachell. In the 
Same institution are two rather larger specimens from the same quafter which do not differ in 
any essential point of structtire, but present a series of bright silvery rhotnboidal marks be- 
tween the two principal rows of dark lateral spots, having, with them, a quincuncial arrange- 
ment, These bright places are not shown in either of Mr. Reeves’s figures. There are series 
of pores in the temporal fossz2 down the limb of the preoperculum and along the limbs of the 
lower jaw. The lateral line is interrupted over the anus, but there are as many rows of lines 
as there are scales, so that the proper continuation of the line is difficult to make out, Length 
of specimens 63 and 8} inches; rays of dorsal, 44; of anal, 1|28. 
; These Ophicephali are carried about the streets of Canton in tubs and are cut in pieces alive 
or sale. 
Hab. Canton: 
_OpnicerHatus tris, C. et V. vii. p. 439. ’ 
Described from a Chinese painting brought from Canton by M. Dussumier. An azure- 
blue spot on the end of the tail. 
.- (Hab. Canton, : 
