408 



TE LEO ST EI 



apparatus is usually reduced, and the branchiostegals delicate 

 or absent. The gill-opening is narrowed to a small round aperture, 

 and the gill-clefts small. The pectoral fins, and even the girdle, 

 may be lost. 



Family Muraenidae. The body is scaleless and generally conspicu- 

 ously coloured. The tail is very long (Fig. 403). 



Pig. 403. 

 Mu rat na picta, Ahl. (After Gunthei .) 



Muraena, L. ; Thyrsoidea, Kp. ; Myrocongei; Gthr. ; Enchelycore, Kp. ; 

 Lycodontis, McCl. ; Ghannomuraena, Rich. 



Series 3. 

 Sub-Order 3. SYMBRANCHIFORMES. 



A small group of very highly specialised fish whose affinities 

 cannot yet be determined. They have a superficial resemblance to 

 the Pxds, from which they differ in many important osteological 

 characters, and in the possession of closed ovisacs. The air-bladder 

 is absent. 



The skull is like that of the Clupeiformes ; the parietals 

 meet, the maxillae, however, are almost excluded from the margin 

 of the mouth, and the hj'opalatine arcade is closely fitted to 

 the narrow, firmly ossified cranium. The trunk being much 

 lengthened and the tail short, the anus is usually far back, and 

 there are a large number of vertebrae. In Chihbranchus the tail 

 is long. .Strong parapophyses bear short ribs. The centra are 

 slightly opisthocoelous. 



