192 DK. A. GUNTHER ON NEW REPTILES AND FISHES. [June 24, 
groove ; the fifth, sixth, and seventh are the longest, not quite half 
as long as the head; the last spine is shorter than the penultimate ; 
the soft dorsal is elevated and scaly at the base. The second anal 
spine is exceedingly strong, rather stronger and longer than the third, 
and not quite half as long as the head ; the soft anal is similar to the 
soft dorsal. Caudal fin rounded, slightly produced, one-fourth of 
the total length ; its basal half is scaly. Pectoral rather narrow, as 
long as the head without snout. The ventral is inserted immediately 
behind the base of the pectoral; it has a strong spine, and extends 
to the vent. 
Scales minutely ciliated ; the upper part of the lateral line termi- 
nates below the last dorsal rays, the lower commences above the 
third anal spine. 
Gill-membranes united below the throat, not attached to the 
isthmus, scaly. Four gills, a slit behind the fourth ; pseudobranchiz 
none. 
The jaws, vomer, palatines, and upper and lower pharyngeals are 
armed with bands of small villiform teeth. Very remarkable are two 
large, ovate, dentigerous plates, one at the roof, the other at the bot- 
tom of the mouth, in front of the pharyngeals; these plates are 
slightly concave in the middle, pavimentated with molar-like teeth, 
and have evidently the same function as the pharyngeal .dentigerous 
plates of the true Pharyngognathi. 
Total length 52 lines. 
When I composed the generic characters of the genus Catopra from 
Bleeker’s accounts, I had not seen a specimen of these fishes, and I 
described their peculiar dentition in very indistinct terms. The 
teeth ought to be described thus :—Villiform teeth in the jaws and 
on the vomer and palatine bones; a large patch of molar-like teeth 
on the presphenoid and on the basi-hyal. 
CATOPRA TETRACANTHUS. (Pl. XXVI. fig. B.) 
D. mee A.=. L. lat. 26. L. transv. 3/9. 
8 
_The height of the body is nearly one-third of the total length. 
Cheek with four series of scales, the lower preeopercular limb being 
naked. Coloration uniform ? : 
East Indies. , 
Description.—The height of the body is nearly one-third of the 
total length, the length of the head two-sevenths ; head a little longer 
than high. The length of the snout equals the diameter of the eye, 
which is contained thrice and two-thirds in the length of the head. 
The width of the interorbital space is considerably less than that of 
the orbit. The lower jaw is scarcely longer than the upper, and the 
maxillary extends slightly beyond the anterior margin of the orbit. 
Two nostrils remote from each other, the anterior minute. Pre- 
orbital and angle of the preeoperculum slightly serrated; opercles, 
throat, and isthmus entirely scaly. The dorsal fin commences above 
the root of the pectoral, and terminates at a short distance from the 
caudal ; its spines are of moderate strength, those in the middle being 
