2. Micrognathus mataafae (Jordan & Scale). 

 [Fig. 33, p. 75]. 



Corythro'uhtltys //ia/(ja/(ri' Jordan & Scale, Bull. Bur. Fish. XXV. (1905) 1906, p. 213. 

 Sy/ignufhiis mataafae Giinther, Fische d. Siidsee. 1910, p. 431. 

 Syngnafhiis mataafae Max Weber, Siboga-Exj)editie, Fische. 1913, p. 112. 

 Micrognathus Mataafae Duncker, Mitt. a. d. natiirli. Mus. Ilambiug X.XXII. 

 1915, p. 76. 



D. 21—23; A. 2—3; P. 12—13; C. 10; Rings 15 + 34—35; 

 subdorsal rings i + 4. 



Trunk heptagonal, tail tetragonal; more slender than pre- 

 ceding species. Edges of rings smooth. Intermedial shields 

 large. Head more than 10 to more than 1 1 "^ times in length. 

 Eye more than 3'/.^ times in head. Snout very short, thick, 

 with a median crest of 4 — 6 rather strong teeth; it is longer 

 than eye and than half length of postorbital part of head, 

 about thrice in length of head. Operculum with a feeble basal 

 keel but with numerous radiating lines. A fringed cutaneous 

 appendage on top of each orbit and a single one on middle 

 of nape, besides a pair on snout behind eye. Tail twice or 

 more longer than the length of the trunk. Caudal short, about 

 equal to eye. Anal minute; pectorals shorter than opercle. 

 Colour whitish, a silvery brown rimmed spot on the inter- 

 medial shields. Head with dusky lines and spots or light brown 

 with 10 — II whitish cross bars on back, 3 in front of dorsal, 

 2 below dorsal, the others on tail. Length 115 mm. 



Habitat: Timor I; Island Salomakiee !. - — Samoa. 



On coral reefs. 



12. Syngnathus Linne (Kaup). 



(LiNNE, Syst. nat. edit. X. 1758, p. 336). 

 Kaup, Cat. Lophobr. Fish, 1856, p. 32. 



Body slender, elongate, not compressed, hexagonal, or tetra- 

 gonal, tapering into a long tetragonal tail. Shields more or 

 less transversally striated, their edges smooth or serrated. 

 Intermedial shields (scutella) generally present as also a nuchal 

 and praenuchal shield. Superior cristae of trunk and tail dis- 

 continuous ; inferior cristae of trunk and tail continuous; median 

 cristae of trunk and inferior cristae of tail discontinuous, but 

 the former and the superior cristae of tail continuous or sub- 

 continuous. Head generally slender and tapering gently into 



