23,2 H err e: Philippine Eels 197 



Color variable; normally gray or whitish to yellow Or brown, 

 with from twenty-three to twenty-nine broad dark brown bands 

 which are continued on fins, the body color appearing as very 

 narrow pale rings which merge along throat and anterior portion 

 of trunk ; the dark bands may be irregular, partial, or they may 

 nearly disappear except on end of tail, when the color appears 

 as reticulations or marblings. 



There is a single small specimen, 159 millimeters long, in the 

 Bureau of Science collection, taken at Calapan, Mindoro, and I 

 have examined another one, 165 millimeters long, collected at 

 Nasugbu, Batangas, by students of the College of Agriculture. 

 It has also been recorded from Calayan, by Jordan and Rich- 

 ardson. 



A shore and reef inhabitant, reaching a length of 550 milli- 

 meters, and occurring from the Red Sea to Formosa, Hawaii, 

 and the Paumotu Archipelago. • 



Echidna nebulosa (Ahl) . Plate 10, fig. 3. 



Mursena nebulosa Ahl, Dissert de Mursena et Ophichtho 3 (1789) 5, 



pi. 1, fig. 2. 

 Mursena ophis Ruppell, Atlas Reise Nordl. Afrika (1828) 116, pi. 29, 



fig. 2. 

 Mursena variegata Richardson, Voyage Erebus and Terror, Fishes 



(1844-48) 94, pi. 47, figs. 1-5 and 11-16. 

 Echidna variegata Bleeker, Atlas Ichth. Muram. 4 (1864) 80, pi. 24, 



Murxna nebulosa Gunther, Cat. Fishes Brit. Mus. 8 (1870) 130, 

 Fische d. Siidsee 3 (1910) 423; Day, Fishes of India (1878-88) 673, 



Echidna nebulosa Jenkins, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm. 22 (1902) (1903) 

 429; Jordan and Evermann, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm. 23 (1903) 

 (1905) 110, pi. 1; Weber and Beaufort, Fishes Indo-Austr. Arch. 

 3 (1916) 348, fig. 170. 



Depth 16 to 21 in total length; head 9.65 to a trifle more than 

 10 in total length, and from 3.25 to a little more than 4 in trunk; 

 head and trunk together equal to tail, or the latter may be a 

 little shorter or a little longer than rest of animal ; eye 8 to 12.5 

 in head, and from 1.6 to 2.5 in snout, which is 5 to nearly 6 in 

 head; the wide mouth 2| to 3.5 in head; origin of dorsal in 

 advance of gill openings; maxillary teeth in one row, very small, 

 bluntly conical or granular; intermaxillary plate with two large 

 blunt teeth in the middle, surrounded by a semicircle of about a 

 dozen similar teeth, some of which are smaller than the two inner 

 ones; vomer with two parallel rows of similar teeth nearly as 

 large, six to ten in number; lower jaw with teeth in two rows in 



