SUNIER: Marine fish-ponds of Batavia. 201 
Of more importance to us are the morphological peculiarities of the 
alimentary canal. 
It is well-known that the mouth of the bandeng is small and entirely 
toothless. 
WEBER and DE BEAUFORT (°°) write: “Mouth terminal, small, trans- 
verse, bordered above by (the) intermaxillaries, which exclude 
from the gape the short and broad maxillaries, which have no 
supplemental bone. The mandibles are overlapped by the upper jaw. They 
have a symphysial tubercle, fitting into a notch between the maxillaries. 
No teeth”. In concordance with the above words, printed in spaced type, 
GOODRICH (2%) also says (p. 392): “maxilla excluded from the gape of the 
small mouth’. 
However, as appears from our photo 12 (Plate XVIII), taken from 
a fresh bandeng, the mouth opening is certainly also bordered by the 
maxillaries. But in specimens hardened in alcohol it may at first sight 
make the impression as if the maxillaries were excluded from the gape 
of the mouth. 
It is a very remarkable though a wellknown fact that the oesophagus 
of the bandeng, before the real U-shaped stomach-bend, forms a complete 
S-shaped curve. On this subject compare e.g. GEGENBAUR ('*), II, p. 133; 
and the Cambridge Natural History, vol. VII (°°), p. 256; and also our 
figures 7 (Plate XIX) and 8 (Plate XX). The interior surface of the foremost 
part of this S-shaped oesophagus-curve, which part passes backwards from 
the pharynx, displays, as is likewise already known, a number of parallel 
spiral-folds (cf. fig. 8, Plate XX). Moreover the entire inner surface of 
this part of the oesophagus is covered with a very large number of 
papillae '), directed backwards, which are largest on the free edges of the 
spiral folds (cf. fig. 8, Plate XX). The mucous 
membrane of this fore-part of the oesophagus 
regularly shows a strong secretion of mucus 
which envelops the fragments of food. 
In this first part of the oesophagus of 
bandeng, not from the empangs, but caught in 
the sea, I often found some of the Trematodes 
represented in fig. 9. 
At A B in fig. 8 (Plate XX) the fore-part 
of the oesophagus passes into the second part ee ting ah ye 
which is directed forward, and this in its turn foremost part of the oesophagus 
passes at C D into the third part which again en 
assumes a backward direction. The interior 
') I have found no reference to these papillae in the literature at my disposal. 
GEGENBAUR (!*), II, p. 133 mentions only “derbe, nach hinten gerichtete Papillen” in the 
“Anfang des Schlundes” for Sfromateus. Immediately afterwards he discusses the 
S-shaped oesophagus-curve of Lutodeira, but does not mention the papillae which 
occur in the foremost part of the oesophagus of het latter animal. 
