60 THE PLAGIOSTOMIA. 



cirrus extending to the lips. Mouth inferior, transverse, with short labial folds 

 around the angles, and with a preoral fold in front of the upper teeth behind the 

 narial flap. Eye small. Spiracle small, wider vertically, behind and near the 

 orbit. Width of first gill opening equal length of orbit, hindmost three of the 

 openings above the pectoral, fourth and fifth widest, overlapping. 



Dorsals ventrals and anal small; subcaudal narrow, not lobed. Base of 

 first dorsal equal the space between it and the second, middle above origin of 

 ventral and end slightly forward of end of ventral base. Second dorsal smaller, 

 origin above the middle of the space between ventrals and anal, end of base 

 above the origin of the anal. Base of anal about equal to that of the second 

 dorsal, fin longer. Caudal not raised from the axis of the body. On the speci- 

 men described the vertebral column protrudes below the supracaudal. 



Brown on back and sides, with six cross-bands or blotches of yellow on the 

 body, and twenty-two on the tail: the anterior crosses the occiput to the bases 

 of the pectorals, the second crosses above the pectorals and extends obliquely 

 backward and down to the fins, this band is followed by a dorsal spot behind 

 which the bands are more vertical and more irregular; on the tail they divide so 

 as to form a series of spots on the lower part of each side. Belly white. 



Giinther describes an individual as brownish yellow with black or brown 

 cross bands or stripes or with snuff-colored rounded spots. Riippell figures 

 another as brownish with spots and bands of brown. Individual variations 

 appear to connect these extremes. 



A specimen about five feet in length is brownish with faint transverse 

 cloudings of brown on the body; it bears numerous round spots of dark brown, 

 as large as the eye or smaller, beginning as dots about the eyes on the head and 

 extending back and downward to the ventrals. Behind the first dorsal the 

 spots become less numerous and more scattered; they disappear near the root 

 of the caudal. 



India and East Indies to Africa. 



Chiloscyllium. 



Chiloscyllium Mt)LLER & Henle, 1837, Sitzb. Akad. wisa. Berlin., p. 112; Wiegm. archiv., p. 395; 



1838, Charlesworth's mag., 2, p. 34; 1841, Plagios., p. 17. 

 Synchismus Gill, 1861, Ann. N. Y. lye, 7, p. 413. 



Elongate; body less than half of the total length; head short, depressed, 

 narrowed above and forward; tail long, slender. Eyes small, lower lid without 

 a fold. Spiracle small, below hind part of the eye, without or with a process on 

 the hind margin. Nostrils inferior, near the end of the snout, with a nasoral 



