1849.] Catalogue of Malayan Fishes, 1307 



subulate, and they decrease from the symphysis, on which there is a 

 toothless interval between the series of both branches. The tongue 

 is small elongated and tied to the floor of the mouth, of which it 

 occupies the posterior third. The vertical diameter at the occiput is ^ of-, 

 the greatest of the body is contained 2\ times in the length of the head, 

 while that between the terminations of the dorsal and anal equals the 

 diameter of the eye and forms the base of the triangular tip of the tail, each 

 of the sides of which is two diameters of the eye. The dorsal commences 

 above the posterior third of the pectorals. The distance from the root of 

 the upper pectoral ray to the dorsal is 4f to 5 times in that from the 

 muzzle to the dorsal ; the general length of the dorsal rays is contained 5 \ 

 times in the head ; but immediately before the termination of the fin, the 

 rays suddenly increase in length, and are but 4^ times in the head. Such 

 is also the case with the anal, which resembles the dorsal. The anus is 

 situated a little in front of the end of the third-fifth of the total length. 

 The pectorals are elongated, \ of the length of the head. Single indivi- 

 duals occur at all seasons at Pinang. The present species bears a general 

 resemblance to O. hijala* Buchanan Hamilton, but in the latter the 

 dorsal commences at a short distance behind the pectorals. 



* Buchan. Ham. pp. 20, 336, PL V. Fig. 5. Syxv. 0. hyala, Cuv. R. A. II. 

 351. i}) — 0. puncticulata, Swainson, II. 334. — 0. rostratus, McClelland, Calc. 

 Journ. Nat. Hist. V. 184, 211.— 0. hyala, McClelland, ibid. V. 184, 185.— 

 O. hijala, McClelland, ibid. V. 211.— 0. minimus, McClelland, ibid. V. 185, 212, 

 PI. X. Fig. 3.— 0. caudatus, McClelland, ibid. V. 185, 204, PI. XII. Fig. 3.— 



O. rostratus, Richardson : Report, 1845, 313. — 0. hijala, Richardson, ibid. 314. 



With regard to the nomenclature of Mr. McClelland, it is necessary to observe that 

 the duplicate series of Buchanan Hamilton's drawings contains a figure of this eel, 

 marked in Buchanan's handwriting. " Ophisuris rostratus, " which is evidently the 

 same as PI. V. Fig. 5, 0. hijala, (Fishes of the Ganges.) In publishing the figure 

 and the description, Buchanan chose to alter his manuscript name " rostratus" to 

 "hijala." It is this, by Buchanan himself cancelled manuscript name "rostratus," 

 which Mr. McClelland has introduced as if it were a species distinct from hijala, 

 and of which he says : " I have not met with it, but it is closely allied to Oph. 

 minimus, from which it only differs in having a square muzzle." — O. minimus, 

 McClelland, is characterised as having ** the distance from the point of the muzzle 

 to the eyes equal to 1-5 of the distance from the eyes to the pectorals." But in 

 Mr. McClelland's figure (PL X. Fig. 3,) the former distance is one-third of the 

 latter, exactly as represented in the outline of O. hijala, Buchanan, (PL V. Fig. 5. 



