416 Dr. Bancroft on Jamaican Fishes, S)C. 



small, and just behind the eyes. We must therefore consider the fish as 

 a young Squaliis cirratus fScyllium of Cuvier). The adults of this spe- 

 cies are sometimes found here of the length of 14 or 15 feet. They 

 have generally 10 rows of teeth ; not a common character with Sharks. 



If Mr. Bennett should have the opportunity, I hope he will forgive my 

 recommending to his study the forms of the teeth, and the number of 

 series, in the dififerent sub-genera and even species of the Squalidce. I 

 suspect that each will be found to have its peculiarities, so that the indi- 

 vidual might be determined by the teeth alone, and perhaps by a single 

 tooth . 



I have also put into the cask a specimen of our Sea-eel, although it 

 seems to be only the Conger vulgaris *, and another, if I recollect right, 

 of a Scorpcena : but the note I had taken of the latter is mislaid, and I 

 therefore abstain from saying more about it. 



Three specimens of our Yellow Snake will be found in the breaker, 

 which I beg to recommend to the attention of Mr. Bell, as this species 

 (of Boa ) has never been properly described. Sloane's account of 

 its head and body being " of a dark brown colour, with some yellow 

 " streaks here and there," and of " the belly being all yellow," is very 

 far from correct ; and his figure of it is ridiculous, nay disgraceful. 

 Dr. P. Browne's is less objectionable, and it notices the claws near the 

 anus ; yet it is not in strict accordance with truth, the Snake being 



* The Sea-eel communicated by Dr. Bancroft is perhaps identical with the 

 Savanne of Martinique (^Murxna Savanna, Cuv.) a fish of which no distinguish- 

 ing mark has yet been published, except that derived from the forward position 

 of the commencement of the dorsal fin. 



Dr, Bancroft's fish is characterized in the "Proceedings" of the Committee 

 of Science and Correspondence of the Zoological Society as the 



Conger Savanna? Cong, pinna dorsali ante basin pinnarum pectoralium 

 incipiente: dentibus anterioribus conicis ; lateralibus pluri-seriatis, seriei 

 medioemajoribus, parallelopidedis, cuneatis, serierum ex ternarum interna- 

 rumque minoribus granulatis rotundalisque, omnibus confer tis ; vomerinis 

 mediis majoribus triangularifjus, svbrecurvis, compressis, lateralibus 

 rotnndalo-graniilatis. 



