LOI'IIOBRANCHII. G'J 



NeropMs btmbriciformis, viz. the cutaneous fin on the hack and 

 belly which vanishes in the older fish, forms a character to this 

 species throughout its entire life. 



b. Species destitute of a caudal Jin. 



6. Neropbis annulatus, Kp. 



Scyphus annulatus, fasciatus et papacinus, Risso, Hist. Xat. 



pp. 185-187. 

 Syngnathus fasciatus, Risso, Ichth. di Nice, p. 70. pi. 4. f. 8. 

 Syngnathus papacinus, Risso, Ichth. di Nice, p. 69. pi. 4. f. 7- 



Diagn. — Length of the snout exceeding the height of hind- 

 head. A yellow stripe and spot bordered with black ex- 

 truding from the hinder part of the orbit over the gill-cover. 

 Head constituting a sixteenth part of the entire length of 

 the fish. 



Risso describes the species under three several names. An 

 old female possesses all the characters that he ascribes to 

 fasciatus : it exhibits on each ring a dark cross-band. A male 

 preserved in the Vienna Museum under the name of papacinus 

 exhibits bluish spots surrounded with black : the under half of 

 the belly shows rows of scars without eggs. A young female of 

 the length of 6"30 inches is uniformly dark brownish-green with- 

 out cross-bars or spots : head and posterior half of the tail 

 marked as in the others. In a large number of specimens I 

 could not reckon above 26 or 28 rays in the dorsal fin. In the 

 old female, whose head I have figured, the sixth ray of the 

 dorsal is abnormally forked. The dimensions of an old female 

 are as follows : — Length of body 3'55 inches, of tail 7'09 inches. 



A specimen in the Leyden Museum was sent from the Cape 

 by M. Ilorstock. Another in the Paris collection came from 

 Algiers. This collection possesses a great many of all ages 

 which were fished at Nizza. 



7. Nerophis luinbriciformis, Bonap. 



Neropbis lumhriciformis, Bonap. Cat. Me'th. p. 91. no. 818. 



Yarrell. Brit. Fishes, p. 450, a figure. 

 Acus lumbriciformis, Willughby, p. 160. 



Syngnathus ophidion, Penn. Brit.Zool. iv. p. 187. & p. 26. no. 22. 

 Syngnathus lumbriciformis, Fries, IViegm. Arch. p. 249. t. 6. 

 f. 5, <K 



