1 849.] Catalogue of Malayan Fishes. 1171 



narrow, almost linear, short, smooth, rounded in front and tied to 

 the floor of the mouth. It is of a buff colour, but the cavity of the 

 mouth is inky. The scales of the nape are very small and deci- 

 duous, so as to make the part appear naked ; they gradually increase in 

 size towards the posterior part of the body, where they are very large. 

 They are orbicular with about 16 striae. The body is compressed, the 

 profile gradually narrowing towards the tail. The first dorsal ray is 

 situated at the second third of the total length : its height is about 

 i of the vertical diameter at the nape ; the succeeding, undivided, rays 

 gradually increase towards the 5th, which, as well as the 6th, are about 

 f of the vertical diameter at the nape. The distance between the 5th 

 and 6th, undivided, rays, and between the latter and the first branched 

 ray is conspicuously greater than the distances between any of the 

 preceding or following dorsal rays. The first branched ray is some- 

 what shorter than the 6th undivided, which produces a sinking in the 

 upper margin of the connecting membrane, and indicates the transition 

 from the undivided to the branched rays. The latter gradually increase 

 in length towards the penultimate, which nearly equals the vertical 

 diameter at the nape. The caudal is broad lanceolate, its length about 

 r of the total. The first undivided ray of the anal is situated opposite 

 the 3rd branched dorsal ; the height of the fin is slightly less than 

 that of the dorsal. The papilla immediately behind the anus is short, 

 conical. The ventrals are rounded, their length equalling the vertical 

 diameter at the nape ; the transversal diameter exceeding the latter 

 by one third. The pectorals are pointed, their length \ of the total. 

 It is not numerous at Pinang. 



Although the dorsal fin is single, as it is in Gobioides, Lacepede, 

 this species has the characteristic dentition of Apocryptes : it is in 

 fact an Apocryptes with the two dorsal fins united, and as above 

 observed, with the junction perceptible. The single character is of 

 too little value to warrant the formation of a separate genus, par- 

 ticularly, as in Apocryptes dentatus, Cuv. and Val. (XII. 112) the 

 membrane of the anterior dorsal is continued to the base of the second. 



Gen. Trypauchena, Cuv. and Val. 1837. 

 Ventral fins united as in Gobius ; the single dorsal, the caudal and 

 anal united ; on each side of the nape above the opercle a deep fossa. 



