522 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxxii. 



4. HARPODON Le Sueur. 



Ilarpodon Le Sueuk, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., V, 1825, p. 50 {microps= 



nehereus) (misprinted Harpadon). 

 Triurus Swainson, Class. Anim., 1839, II, p. 288 {inicrocep}ialus=neliereus). 

 SauridicUhysB-LEEKEn, Pisces Java, Nat. Tyd. Ind., XV, 1856, p. 163 {ophiodon= 



nehereus). 



Body elongate, compressed; snout sKort; bones of head soft and 

 partly modified into wide miiciferous channels; eyes small. Cleft 

 of mouth deep; margin of upper jaw formed by the premaxillaries, 

 which are thin^ and tapering; no maxillaries. Teeth cardiform, 

 recurved, unequal in size, depressible, the largest on the jaws and 

 more or less barbed. Teeth on premaxillaries, mandible, palatines, 

 tongue, and hyoid. Branchiostegals from 23 to 25; gill openings 

 wide; gill membranes free from isthmus. 



Dorsal short, near middle of body length; adipose fin small; pec- 

 torals and ventrals long; caudal three lobed. 



Scales thin, deciduous, none on the anterior portion of the body, 

 no luminous spots. No air bladder; pyloric appendages 16. 



Dorsal fui short, of soft rays only; pectorals and ventrals present; 

 anal moderate or long; caudal forked. 



Skeleton rather well ossified; air bladder small or wanting; intes- 

 tinal canal short; no eggs inclosed in the sacs of the ovar}^ and 

 extended through an oviduct. 



Species few, Asiatic, one of them being the well-known "Bombay 

 Duck," or Bummaloh, Ilarpodon nehereus, used when dried as a 

 condiment. A shore fish of wdde distribution, the Japanese species 

 in deep water. 



{apTtij, scythe; oScwg^ tooth.) 



5. HARPODON MICROCHIR Giinther. 

 MIZUTENGU (WATER GOBLIN.) 



Harpodon microchir Gijnther, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1878, p. 487 (off 

 Tokyo); Keport on the Shore Fishes of the Challenger, 1880, p. 71 (Tokyo) 

 (same specimens). 



Habitat. — Open sea off Japan. 



Head 5^ to 5jS in total length without caudal; depth from 7 J 

 to 8i; interorbital space 4 in head; intermaxillary Ij; eye small, 

 about 9 in head. D. 14; A. 14; P. 11; V. 9. 



Lateral line 58 to 60, extending to extremity of central caudal 

 lobe. Body slender, elongate, subcylindrical, the posterior portion 

 somewhat laterally compressed; head broad above, with prominent 

 bony ridges; a bony tubercle just behind the very short broad snout; 

 opercular flap prolonged, large, thin, membranaceous; eye well 

 forward, high, with a narrow adipose lid encircling the orbital space; 



