254 
a short distance of the apex of the heart. The left commen- 
ces from the anterior third of the tail, and terminates a little 
behind the liver. The ova are very minute, resembling grains 
of sand. 
Synonymy. This single species has been made the represen- 
tative of one Family, five Genera and ten Species. 
BucuananN, HamrLron, the original describer, left two drawings, 
both more or less incorrect. Such as thy are, both have been 
engraved in Harpwicke’s Illustrations of Indian Zoology, and 
upon them are founded Rataboura and Moringua, while Bu- 
CHANAN’s Muraena raitaborua, has been changed to Rataboura 
dfamiltonii, as if it were distinct from the others (Zoölogical 
Miscellany, p. 9.) 
Rataboura Grav 1831, being incorrect and superfluous, is 
inadmissible. 
Moringua Gray Î831 , as above corrected, may be retai- 
ned as a subgenus of Anguilla. 
Pterurus and Pachyurus, Swainson 1839, 1. e. rest upon 
the two figures in Hlustrations of Indian Zoölogy, and would 
therefore be inadmissible, even if the denominations themselves 
had not been preoccupied (Plerurus, Scorout 1777, Lepid. — 
Pachyurus, Aaassiz 1829. Pisc. —) 
Mr. MacCrrrranp has set aside and gone far beyond his pre- 
decessors. He has made this single species the type of one 
Family, one Genus, and seven species. Im the Sth Volume 
of the Calcutta Journal of Natural History, Mr. MacCrerranp gives 
the following contradictory characters of his Family „, Ptyobran- 
chidae.” 
| 
page 176, | page 199, page 221, 
» gills almost tf not quite \»gills unsupported by  »gills supported by bony 
unsupportedby bony ar- ‚ bony arches” „.... | arches. 
Chest? getefeng | 
The adult fish appears in the same Journal under two spe- 
cifie denominations, the younger under five. The descriptions 
are partly incomplete, partly incorrect. 
