Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 403 



tail about a snout's length shorter than rest of body. Color dark brown, 

 with small, round, yellow spots, smaller than pupil, like pin points, scat- 

 tered evenly and sparsely over the body ; spots with blackish margins; 

 lower jaw mottled. Pacific coast of Mexico, the two known specimens 

 from Rio Grande, Costa Rica, and from Cape San Lucas. Cope says of 

 his specimen that the anal fin is a little more than one-third the total 

 length, which is not true of the one here described, (nocturnus, nocturnal, 

 black.) 



Pa'cilophi* nocturnus, COPE, U.S. Geol.Surv. Mont., 474, 1871 (1872), Rio Grande, at San Jos6, 



Costa Rica. (Coll. Dr. Van Patton.) 

 Echidna nocturna, JORDAN & DAVIS, I.e., 612. 



665. ECHIDNA CATENATA (Bloch). 



Head 3 to 3i in trunk, 3 in tail; eye small, 1| to 2 in snout; cleft of 

 mouth 3 to 3^ in head ; tail a trifle longer than rest of body ; teeth of 

 upper jaw more or less biserial. Color, brownish black, marbled or retic- 

 ulated with light yellow or white, the light markings sometimes forming 

 narrow irregular crossbars; under the jaw and on the belly the light yel- 

 low often predominates, inclosing dark spots. West Indies, from Bermuda 

 to Surinam; a small species, generally common; our specimens from San 

 Lucia, (catenatus, chained, from the chain-like cross bands.) 



Mursena seu conger brasiliensi*, SEBA, Thesaurus, n, 72, pi. 69, figs. 4, 5, 1738, Brazil. 

 Gymnothora.r catenalus, BLOCH, Ausl. Fische, xir, 74, pi. 415, fig. 1, 1795, Coromandel; an error. 

 Munnia sordida, CUVIEH, Regne Animal, Ed. 1, 233, 1817, after SEBA. 

 Mnnmophis catennla, LACEPEDE, v, 628 and 641, 1803, after BLOCH, Palmerston Island. 

 Miirmtophix undnlttta, LACPEDE, v, 629, pi. 292, 1803. 

 Murnnu aln*i*, BLEEKER, Act. Soc. Sc. Ind. Neerl., 67, 1855. 

 Echidna jtawscripta, POEY, Kepertorio, n, 264, Cuba. 

 Echidna fuscomaculata, POEY, Repertorio, n, 263, 1868, Cuba. 



Munena catenata, GtJNTHER, Cat., vm, 130, 1870 ; GOODE, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., v., 73, 1876 ; JOR- 

 DAN, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1889, 647. 

 Echidna catenate, JORDAN & DAVIS, I. c., 612. 



193. UROPTERYGIUS, Riippell. 



Gymnomurfrna, LACEPDE, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 618, 1803, (doliata ; marmorata). (Restricted first 



by KAUP, in 1856, to doliata, which is a species of Echidna.) 

 Idhyt>}>hi* t LESSON, Voyage de la Coquille, II, 120, 1830, (pantherinus = marmoralus ; not of FITZ- 



INGER, 1829, a genus of reptiles). 



Uroptmjijiu*, IlCiTELL, Neue Wirbelthiere, Fische, 83, 1838, (concohr). 



Mum Holth-nna, KAUP, Apodal Fishes, 97, 1856, (tigrina), (not of LACPEDE, 1803, which is Myxine). 

 Gi/mnomurtrna, BI.EEKER, GUNTHER, etc., (not of LACEPEDE, as restricted by KAUP). 

 Scuiica, JORDAN & EVERMANN, new subgenus, (necturus). 



This genus contains several species of small Morays, distinguished by 

 the apparent absence of fins. The teeth are small, pointed, and subequal, 

 and the cleft of mouth of moderate size. In spite of its simplicity of 

 structure, it is not by any means a primitive type, but a further degener- 

 ation from the form of Lycodontis and Murcena. Our species (with U. 

 tigrinis) differs from the type of Ufopterygius in having only the anterior 

 nostrils tubular. This may define a new subgenus, Scutica (scutica, a 

 whip). (ovpd } tail; Trri-pv^, fin . ) 



