THE GYMNOTID EELS OF TROPICAL AMERICA. 149 
10058 I. U. M., one, 290 mm. Arroyo Trementina. 
One, 180 mm. Hubabu Creek, Oct. 1, 1910, Ellis. 
1760 C. M., 12589 I. U. M., six, 105-285 mm. Creek below Potaro Landing, 
Eigenmann. 
Head 5.8 to 6.2; depth 5 to 5.5 in the length to the end of the anal; A. 155, 
158, 164, 168, 170 respectively; snout 2.7 to 2.9, interorbital 3.25 to 3.5 in the 
head; eye 3.25 to 3.5 in the snout, 2.8 to 3 in the interorbital, 8.5 to 9 in the head; 
11 to 13 rows of scales above lateral line. 
Compressed and slightly elongate; width of the head 2.5 to 2.8, depth of head 
in occipital region 1.25 to 1.5 in the greatest depth; anus on, or a little behind, the 
vertical from the posterior margin of the eye; dorsal profile rather straight back 
of the head which slopes ventrally; ventral profile slightly coneave, except below 
the pectorals, where it is somewhat convex. 
Snout heavy, truncate and rather short; mouth large; gape reaching to just 
below the eyes; jaws strong, lower included on the sides; teeth minute and conical, 
in two irregular rows in lower jaw and two circular patches (one on each side of 
the median line) in the upper jaw. 
Caudal about 5, pectorals 1.2 to 1.4 in the head; origin of the anal in front of 
the pectorals, about 4 times the eye behind the vertical from the eye. 
Ground-color of preserved specimens dead black; a dirty white band about 
1.5 times the eye in width extending, in the median dorsal line, from the tip of 
the snout to the top of the head; two cream-white bands completely encircle the 
fish, the first beginning at about the 130th anal ray and continuing to the end of 
the anal, the second a smaller one at the origin of the caudal; anal opening, and 
sometimes the extreme tip of the caudal, white; eye in alcoholic specimens a bright 
China blue; fins and rays dead black. 
In living specimens the white bands vary from rose-pink, or heliotrope, to red, 
and the eyes are quite red, the black parts being olivaceous. 
This fish is regarded by some of the natives of Guiana with superstition. 
It is thought to be often inhabited by a ghost of some departed person or evil spirit. 
It is called ‘‘Cheeogaa”’ by these Indians. Natterrer gives the name ‘“ Man tschi- 
ogaa”’ as that of the Indians near Cuyabé. The Brazilians call it ‘'Tovira cavallo.” 
Habitat: Small creeks. 
Distribution: Orinoco, Guianas, Amazons, Ucayale, Rio Paraguay, and Rio 
Parana. 
21. Sternarchus bonapartii Castelnau. 
Sternarchus bonapartii Casretnau, Anim. Amer. Sud. Poiss., 92, pl. 45, fig. 2, 
1855 (Amazon); Kavup, Apod., 126, 1856; GtnrneEr, Cat., VIII, 3, 1870; 
Corn, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 1878, 682 (Peruvian Amazon); STEINDACHNER, 
Flussf. Siidam., II, 42, 1881 (Manacapuru); E1GENMANN AND EIGENMANN, 
Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XIV, 1891, 62; ErasNMANN AND Warp, Proc. Wash. 
