ON THE ICHTHYOLOGY OP THE SEAS OF CHINA AND JAPAN. 313 



Spec. Ichth. viii. pi. 1. f. 1. Gymnothorax annulatus, Bl. Schn. p. 527. 

 Ophithorax colubrinus, M'Clelland, Calc. Journ. Nat. Hist. No. 18. p. 212. 

 July 1844. 

 Hab. Sea of Japan. 



Ophisurus spadiceus, Richardson. 



A specimen of this fish was presented to the British Museum by John Reeves, Esq. The 

 snout, though not wide, has a truncated tip, and the distance between its extremity and 

 the anus is to the length of the fish, as 0*43 to TO. Three teeth stand in a triangle at the 

 extremity of the upper jaw, and behind them, the jaw teeth, consisting of a single row on 

 each side, meet in an angle on the symphysis, within which there are five or six small 

 teeth on the mesial line. The lower jaw is armed like the upper one with a single series 

 on each limb, but there are none anterior to the point at which these side lines meet. The 

 tip of the jaw is rounded and considerably shorter than the upper one. Nostrils very mi- 

 nute, with an orifice over the eye near its middle, having slightly raised edges, and another 

 terminating a short thickish tube on each side of the snout, and there are two minute lobu- 

 lets on the edge of the upper lip, the posterior one situated beneath the eye, and the other 

 half-way between it and the end of the snout. The throat forms a slightly plaited bag, and 

 the gill-openings are before the lanceolate acute pectorals and a little lower. The pectorals 

 contain eleven rays ; the dorsal commences immediately behind them, and like the anal, which 

 is highest anteriorly, terminates suddenly so as to leave a very short naked tip of the tail. 

 The rays of the fins are pretty conspicuous. 



The colour of the specimen, after maceration in spirits, is darkish wood-brown above the 

 lateral line, and whitish beneath, without any defined spotting. Length 13^ inches. Distance 

 between tip of snout and anus, 5*8 inches : length of the pectoral, 0*55 inch ; and height of the 

 body, 0*4 inch. This species possesses some of the characters ascribed to Oph. rostratus of 

 M'Clelland, but as he knows it merely from a drawing of Buchanan-Hamilton's, and conse- 

 quently has not said anything of the dentition, we cannot compare them. It is different from 

 those which he has figured in the Calcutta Journal, and also from Oph. boro (Ham. Buch.), 

 which has two rows of blunt teeth on the jaws and mesial line of palate, with three in a tri- 

 angle at the tip of the upper jaw. 



Hab. Canton. 



Ophisurus harancha, Buchanan-Hamilton, Ganges, p. 20 ? M'Clelland, 

 Calc. Journ. v. p. 211. pi. 12. f. 4.? Icon. Hardw. Malac. 302. ? Grav, 

 Hardw. 111. Ind. Zool. 95. f. 2. 



The British Museum possesses a specimen of the harancha, which was presented to General 

 Hardwicke by Buchanan-Hamilton, and also a Chinese Ophisurus procured at Canton by Mr. 

 Reeves, which differ from each other so slightly that I hesitate to name them as distinct until 

 more recent specimens have been compared. We have had no assistance in the discrimina- 

 tion of these two specimens either from colour or anatomical structure. 



The body of the Chinese fish is nearly cylindrical, and the fish tapers only in the com- 

 pressed end of the tail. It seems to have rather a smaller head than the Indian specimen 

 and a shorter cleft of the mouth, and exhibits a row of prominent pores on the lateral line, 

 which are not evident in the latter. Both have pores along the upper lip, round the eye and 

 on the snout. The fins in both are pale, and their origins and terminations easily made out. 

 The dorsal commences farther back than the tip of the pectorals, and almost meets the anal at 

 the end of the tail, but the extreme tip of the tail is naked. Teeth stoutly subulate and short 

 in two rows on the fore part of both jaws, but wider apart in the lower jaw : in one row on the 

 limbs of the jaws. Three or four near the symphysis of the upper jaw are a little taller than the 

 rest. They stand in two rows on the fore part of the mesial line of the palate, and in only 

 one row posteriorly. 



The Chinese specimen, after a long continuance in spirits, has a dilute wood-brown colour, 

 and when examined through a lens, appears to be mottled with whitish specks mixed with a 

 smaller number of black ones. The whitish specks exist on the belly, but the black ones are 

 wanting there, hence the resulting tint is lighter. The Chinese specimen in the Br. Mus. is 

 nearly 12 inches long; one in the Cambridge Philosophical Institution measures 14-J inches, 

 and the Indian one is l7f inches. 



Hab. Canton. India. 



Obs. Ophisurus boro (Ham. Buch. ; Gray, Hardw. 111. pi. 95. f. 1. Ico?i. Hardw. Malac. 

 301), of which there is an authenticated Indian specimen in the British Museum, bequeathed 

 to it by General Hardwicke, has two or three rows of flat round teeth on the jaws and mid- 

 dle line of the palate, with three teeth of the same form placed in a triangle at the tip of the 

 upper jaw. The dorsal commences farther forward than that of harancha. The same museum 



