2fi LOPHOBRANCHIl. 



Descr. — One of the handsomest species of the genus, re- 

 sembling albirostris in its large eyes and snipe-like snout, which 

 is furnished with a small and finely denticulated medial crest. 

 Head oval, descending suddenly from the forehead to the snout, 

 whose length equals the space between the fore angle of the eye 

 and the distal border of the gill-cover. A line rising in relief 

 extends from the nostrils behind the orbits and on to the occiput. 

 An interrupted, diaphanous, arched crest runs over the hind- 

 head, nape and breast-ring. In the males the site of the egg- 

 pouch is not deeply excavated, being merely flatly concave, and 

 the lateral membranes are too scanty to cover the eggs. 



Colour brown, with dark cross-bars. Gill-cover yellow, with 

 blue and black stripes. The young have two longitudinal stripes 

 on the gill-cover, the upper one passing through the eye. On 

 the hind-head there is a blacker, changeable speck, and the ven- 

 tral surface between the two gill-covers is black. Breast-ring 

 black, with a white girdle. The black dorsal cross-bars are often 

 reduced to slender lines resembling Arabic characters. On the 

 sides there is a light-coloured speckling on a reddish ground- 

 colour. According to Bleeker, a young female specimen from 

 Trincomalee has a gold-coloured gill-cover. The dorsal aspect 

 is green, the ventral one yellow, and the fins red. A large female 

 example preserved in the Parisian Museum under the name of 

 Typhlus Desjardini, and received from the Isle of Bourbon, is 

 yellowish-brown, with traces of markings. 



Rod,— P. 16; D. 29; A. 4; C. 10. 



Amboyna, Bourbon, Ceram, Celebes, China, Noukahiva, and 

 the Red Sea. Presented by Forster, Sir John Richardson, Rey- 

 naud, Hemprich and Ehrenberg to the Museums of London, 

 France, Leyden and Berlin. 



3. Corythoichthys vittatus, Kp. 



Diagn. — Brown ; the body and tail crossed by 2/ white bars. 



Descr. — The Paris Museum possesses a female specimen, 

 brought from the Brazils by De Lalande. It is more closely re- 

 lated to albirostris than to fasciatus. Snout short and high, 

 half the length of the head, with an irregular, denticulated crest 

 on its dorsal aspect originating between the orbits, but not 

 reaching to its tip. From the under margin of the orbit a fur- 

 row extends obliquely to the tip of the snout. There are lfi 

 body-rings before the dorsal fin, and 17 before the anus ; and 

 the dorsal is supported by 5 rings, of which four belong to the 

 tail. On the last body-ring the lateral line coalesces with the 

 under angle of the tail ; and the upper angle of the tail extends 



