5054 THE ZooLoGist—SEPTEMBER, 1876. 
in the figures in Yarrell’s and Couch’s books: of this I have drawn 
an outline at fig. 2: on reference this will be found a correct copy 
of their figures. 
In fig. 2 of this paper my readers will observe the total absence 
of any indication of a dorsal fin. When describing the fresh 
specimen, Mr. Couch says, “ the dorsal 
fin begins four inches and a half from 
the snout” and afterwards goes on to 
say that this and the anal fin are “ thick 
and fleshy, so as not to be readily dis- 
tinguished from the general surface of 
the body.” In four fine healthy living 
Fig. 2. specimens now before me, in the Crys- 
tal Palace Aquarium, which were sent 
to that institution, with some other Italian fishes, by Dr. Anton 
Dohrn, from the Naples Aquarium, each measuring about the 
same length, two feet from snout to end of tail; the dorsal fin is 
rather more than one inch in height, while the ventral fin is half 
an inch deep. When swimming these fins are most conspicuous 
features, occasionally drooping in folds which almost touch 
the body. 
By referring to my drawing of the head of a healthy live 
specimen (fig. 1) it will be seen that it is much more symmetrical 
than that depicted by Yarrell and Couch (fig. 2). Itis quite devoid 
of the large heavy under jaw and chin shown in the outline. Again, 
in Mr. Couch’s coloured figure he makes the head appear as of the 
same colour as the rest of the body, while, in fact, it is of a rich 
dark purplish chocolate-brown, with darker patches and very 
indistinct small cloudy yellow markings, the darker colour only 
shading off to lighter where the head joins the thorax. 
I would particularly point out the existence of four short but 
very conspicuous barbs, each about a quarter of an inch in length. 
In drawing fig. 1, 1 was careful to show these characters somewhat 
prominently, but not more so than they appear upon a living 
specimen. ‘They are not shown in either of Yarrell’s or Couch’s 
figures or in any English book where Murena is figured, excepting 
in one instance, that describing the fishes seen on the Voyage of 
the ‘Erebus’ and ‘Terror,’ wherein an Australian example is 
well figured. I can scarcely understand how an acute observer 
like Mr.Couch could have missed figuring these important features, 
