of tlie Bay of Bengal tC'c. 453 



A specimen, very badly mutilated and not unequivocally 

 identifiable, from the Andaman Sea, 8 miles south-east of 

 Cinque Island, in 500 fathoms. 



Family Halosauridse. 



Halosaukus, Johnson. 



HalosauTus anguilliformis ^ sp. nov. 



B. 12. D. 12. P. 12. V. 9. L. tr. L^. 



All the tissues fragile. Head long, its length exceeding 

 the distance between the gill-opening and the base of the 

 ventral fins. Body subcylindrical, its height being but two 

 thirds the length of tiie snout, which is half that of the head 

 measured to the end of tiie occiput. Snout tapering, produced 

 just half its length beyond the mouth. Suboperculum very 

 large ; the whole opercle covered with a thin, tough, whitish 

 membrane, which roofs over two Very wide, parallel, muci- 

 ferous channels, which extend, one from the preorbital to 

 behind the eye, the other from the symphysis of the lower 

 jaw to the hinder edge of the suboperculum. Diameter of the 

 eye two fifths the length of the postocular portion of the head 

 and exceeding the width of the flat interorbital space. The 

 nostrils are small perforations immediately before the front 

 angle of the eye. Mouth inferior ; the maxilla barely reaches 

 the vertical from the front margin of the orbit. Teeth in 

 broad villiform bands in the jaws and hyoid, in a crescentic 

 band on the palatines, and in narrow tapering bands on the 

 pterygoids. Gill-openings ^vide ; gill-membranes entirelv 

 separate; four gills, with narrow laminse; fourteen gill-rakers 

 on the first arch, of which the middle ones are long and bacil- 

 late. Body covered with large cycloid scales ; head, excepting 

 the cheeks and upper part of opercles, scaleless. The scales 

 of the lateral line are a little enlarged, being rather over a 

 quarter of an inch in diameter and perforated in the centre. 

 The lateral line shows as an opaque white cord curving 

 abruptly downwards from the base of the pectoral tin to the 

 lower profile of the body, along which it runs. Dorsal and 

 anal fins with scaly bases. Pectorals arising well above the 

 middle line of the body, long and narrow, reaching nearly to 

 the base of the ventrals. 



Colours in spirit : — Pinkish brown, opercles and cheeks 

 silvery, gill-membranes black ; fins light grey, posterior part 

 of anal black. Some bright opaque-white masses show 

 thi-ough the bones of the vertex of the head ; a large sagitti- 



