160 OSTEOLOGY OF ANGUILLIDyE — GILL. 



179-," aud Giiuther to "ADgiiilla (Thimberg) Cav. Eegne Anim."; but no 

 such uaiue is to be found iu the Memoirs of the Stockholm Academy. 

 The first division of the old genus Murccna appears to have been made 

 by Thunberg or Ahl In 1789 in an inaugural dissertation.* Therein 

 the genus Murccna is subdivided into, Murcena restricted to species 

 without pectoral fins, and OpMchthus proposed for those with such 

 fins. The species enumerated are as follows : 



The name Murccna was thus definitely restricted to species without 

 pectoral fins, and therefore the subsequent restriction of it to species 

 with pectoral fins, and especially to M. anguilla, as Professors Jordan 

 and Gilbert t have already shown, was illegitimate. If not belonging 

 to OpMchthus, it was necessary, consequently, that another generic 

 name should be given to the Angiulla. OpMclithus, indeed, proved to be 

 a very incongruous group, each species representing a peculiar genus. 

 Genera were proposed for them as follows : 



O. opMs. Ophichthys, Ahl., 1789. 



O. serpens. Leptognathus Sw. 1839. t 



O. cinereus. Mununesox, McCl., 1843. 



O. myrus. Myrus Kanp., 1856. 



O. conger. Conger, Cuv., 1817. 



O. anguilla. Anguilla Sliaw, 1803. 



The name Anguilla therefore rightly belongs to the division so named, 

 but (unless there is some memoir that has been overlooked) must be 

 credited to Shaw and not Thunberg. The synonymy of the genus will 

 then be, in brief, as follows : 



ANGUILLA. 



< Anguilla Shaw, Gen. Zool., v. 4, p. 15, 1803. 



< Anguilla Cuvier, Rho-ne, Animal, V. 2, p. 230, 1817. 

 = Anguilla Kaup, Cat. Apodal Fish, p. 32, 1856. 



= Mura3na Bleeker Atlas, Ich. Ind. Neerland, V. 4, p. 1, 1864. 

 Muraena sp. anct. vet. 

 Ophichthus sp. Thunberg, Ahl. 



* Specimen ichthyologicum de Murcena et Ophichtho quod seria exp. fac. nied. 

 Ups. pricsid. Carol Vet. Thunberg jcquite, etc. modeste offert Jonas Nicol. Ahl. 27. 

 Jan. 1739. llpsalia. 



t On the nomenclature of the genus Ophichthus <^Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., v. 5, pp. 

 648-651. 



X See Jordan &, Gilbert, op. cii. 



