192 DK. A. GUNTHER ON NEW REPTILES AND FISHES. [June 24, 



groove ; the fifth, sixth, and seventli 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 ; pseudobranchise 

 none. 



The jaws, vomer, palatines, and upper and lower pharyngeals are 

 armed with bands of small villiforra 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. (PI. XXVI. fig. B.) 

 D. '-^. A. g-. L. lat. 26. L. transv. 3/9. 



The height of the body is nearly one- third of the total length. 

 Cheek with four series of scales, the lower prseopercular limb being 

 naked. Coloration uniform ? 



East Indies. 



Desci'ijption. — 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. Prse- 

 orbital and angle of the prseoperculum 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 



