444 



Memoirs of the Indian Museum. 



[Vol. V, 



hundred and forty-four coloured figures of the manuscript volume of his drawings, 

 now in possession of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, is the original drawing of this 

 species. 1 The name first written on the plate was " Ophisuroides." This was 

 afterwards altered by Buchanan in his own handwriting to Muraenophis bagi. There 

 is an indifferent reproduction of this plate by M'Clelland in which all the proportions 

 are inaccurate and the apertures of the nostrils are incorrectly copied. 



Measurements of the specimen from the Chilka Lake are given below: — 



Length of head 



Distance from snout to vent . . 



Distance from vent to end of tail 



Length of snout 



Length of pectoral fin 



The dorsal fin begins 27 mm.- in front of the branchial opening. 



This fish is probably only a stray visitor to the lake; a curious fact, however, is 

 that in the present instance the specimen was found in water that was almost fresh. 



Distribution: — Coasts of Arabia and Africa, and seas and estuaries of India, the 

 Malay Archipelago, Australia, China and Japan. 



• • 135 



mm. 



• • 370 



>) 



. . 480 



m 



.. 36 



? J 



•■ 45 



) ) 



Family MURAENIDAE. 

 Genus RHABDURA, Ogilby. 

 Rhabdura macrura (Bleeker). 



1854. Muraena macrurus, Bleeker, Ichth. Bant. Nat. T. Ned. Ind., VII, p. 324. 



1856. Thyrsoidea longissima, Kaup, Cat. Apod. Fish, p. 82. 



1864 Thyrsoidea macrurus, Bleeker, Atl. Ich., IV, p. in, t. clxvi, f. 2. 



1878. Muraena macrura, Day, Fish. Ind., p. 672, pi. clxx, fig. 5. 



1889. Muraena macrura, Day. Faun. Brit. Ind. Fish., I, p. 81, fig. 32. 



1907. Rhabdura macrura, Ogilby, Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensland, XX, p. 13. 



1909. Muraena macrurus, Günther, Fisch. Sudsee, III, p. 421. 



1910. Evenchelys macrurus, Jordan and Richardson, Mem. Carneg. Mus., IV, p. 175. 



There is one specimen in the collection. It was secured near Satpara in the 

 month of March, 1914. The specimen measures nearly four and a half feet in length. 



The word " twenty ' ' in Kaup' s description, stating that the length of the head is 

 contained twenty times in the length, is probably a mistake for " ten." The species, 

 however, is exceedingly elongate and the tail is more than double the length of the 

 trunk. The colour is uniformly blackish brown. The lateral line runs higher up 

 than the middle line and commences in this specimen about 50 mm. anterior to the 

 gill-slits. It consists of a series of detached elongated dashes on each side. The fol- 

 lowing measurements of the specimen are of interest: — 



'' This volume of manuscript drawings of Dr. Buchanan (afterwards Hamilton), consisting of 144 

 coloured figures of fishes executed by Indian painters under his supervision, was deposited in the library 

 of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Sibpur in 1815. It was transferred from there to the library of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal by Mr. W. Griffith in 1843. This drawing (plate xxix) of the fish is therefore 

 the earliest figure of the species extant. 



