of the Bay of Bengal. 213 



tlie large mouth. Eyes none. No barbel. Villiform teetli 

 in the jaws, vomer, and palate. Gill-membranes rather 

 broadly united ; four gills; eight branchiostegals ; no pseudo- 

 branchiai. Small deciduous scales on body and head; lateral 

 line indistinguishable. Vertical fins confluent; pectorals 

 entire ; ventrals widely separated, each consisting of two 

 filaments. 



15. Tauredophidium Hextii, sp. n. (PI. VIII. fig. 1.) 



The soft tissues comparatively firm, and the bones, except 

 those of the opercles, strong and compact ; no eyes ; immense 

 spines on the opercles. 



B. 8. D. U. A. 58. V. 2. P. 18. C. 10. 



The trunk much deeper and broader than the tail, its 

 length being 2h in the total without the caudal and its height 

 about 4^ in the same ; the tail low, compressed and acumi- 

 nate. 



Head broad, pyramidal, its dorsal outline rising straight 

 from the tip of the snout to the occiput at an angle of nearly 

 Ab° ; its length is about one fourth of the total without the 

 caudal, its height about |, its breadth about §, of its length ; 

 the cranial bones are compact and resistant, forming a sort of 

 buckler in the broad frontal region ; the preoperculum and 

 operculum have each an independent lateral ginglymoid 

 motion, allowing the erection of the enormous grooved spines 

 with which these bones are armed; the operculum, which is 

 a short narrow bone, carries at its postero-superior angle a 

 single straight retrorse spine, measuring half the length of the 

 head ; the preoperculum bears three spines, which radiate 

 from its angle, the middle one being the longest and nearly 

 three fourths the length of the opercular spine ; the occipital 

 crest projects subcutaneously as a coarsely pointed eminence, 

 and behind it the stout, elongate, first (?) neural spine pro- 

 jects similarly but even more conspicuously. The snout is 

 broad and rounded, and does not overhang the mouth. The 

 eyes are completely atrophied ; the small orbital cavities are 

 hidden beneath thick scaly skin, and are filled with connective 

 tissue, deeply imbedded in which is a small pigmented ocular 

 bulb about the size of an ordinary pin-head. Nostrils large. 

 Muciferous cavities of snout and mandible well developed and 

 opening to the exterior by pores. Mouth large, its cleft 

 nearly horizontal ; maxilla more than half the length of the 

 head, much expanded behind, protractile, completely including 

 the lower jaw in repose; labial fold absent on the upper, 

 Ann.d: Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 6. Vol. vi. 16 



