23,2 H err e: Philippine Eels 183 



those on vomer much larger, six to ten in number ; intermaxillary- 

 plate with three to five large stout teeth in a transverse series, 

 separated from the rest by a wide shallow cross notch into 

 which tip of mandible fits; gill openings lateral, vertical or 

 nearly so, separated by an interspace of their own length. 



Color above lateral line uniformly finely punctulated dark 

 brown or grayish brown; lower half yellow or pale, almost a 

 sharp line separating upper from lower color on tail; scattered 

 punctulations extending a short distance below lateral line on 

 trunk; top and tip of snout blue-black; under jaw specked and 

 splashed with bluish black; lateral line with a series of small, 

 more or less stellate whitish spots about the size of eye, or 

 pores in round yellow spots; pores on head in smaller spots 

 which form a transverse band on vertex. 



This eel reaches a length of nearly 400 millimeters. It is 

 known only from a specimen from Mindoro Island, and one from 

 Waigeu Island, which was caught above the mouth of a river, 

 in fresh water. 

 Caecula taylori sp. nov. Plate 6, fig. 2. 



Depth 18.2 in length, head 8.86, and 3 in trunk; tail a little 

 longer than head and trunk together, their length being 82.2 

 per cent of that of tail ; the small protuberant eyes in advance 

 of middle of gape and 1.51 in snout and 14.8 in head; gape 

 wide and 3.08 in head; the distance between the origin of dorsal 

 and a vertical drawn from dorsal to gill openings is contained 

 9.25 times in head; vertical fins ^ „ a 



very low, height of dorsal more f"\ A\ 



than 7 in depth; ventral higher j ' ^& 

 than dorsal and twice as high / I | 

 anteriorly as posteriorly; its f jf | 

 origin is separated from anal # v 1 I | 



opening by a broad interspace; f c | 

 dorsal and anal end opposite 

 each other, close to tip of tail; 



vertical gill openings separated vo "~~* 



by an interspace equal to their length; teeth small, sharp, 

 recurved, in single rows, about thirty of uniform size in each 

 maxilla and about twenty-two on each side in lower jaw; the 

 first two pairs in mandible much stouter than the others; three 

 rather small teeth on intermaxillary plate, their arrangement 

 shown in the figure; a row of five widely spaced teeth on vomer, 



l\ 



