1308 Catalogue of Malayan Fishes. [Dec. 



Ophitjrus breviceps, Cantor. 



Plate V. Fig. 4, (Magnified.) 



Head above and back greenish olive, lighter on the sides of the head 

 and body, everywhere minutely dotted with black ; throat and abdomen 

 greenish white ; dorsal greenish white, dotted and edged with black ; 

 pectorals and anal greenish white dotted with brown. Iris pale green- 

 ish golden, dotted with black. 



D {448; A {298; P13 ' Br - XXXI - 



Habit. — Sea of Pinang. 



Total length : 2 ft. 2| inch. 



The head is proportionally very short, elongated conical, terminating 

 in a narrow truncated muzzle ; the eye small ; the body cylindrical, 

 suddenly deepening behind the anus, and slowly tapering towards the 

 small blunt point of the tail. The length of the head is y 1 ^, or a little 

 less, of the total and contained 5f to 5f times in the distance from the 

 muzzle to the anus. The latter is situated either in the middle of the 

 third-eighth or a little in front of its termination. The horizontal diameter 

 of the small oval eye is contained 1 3| times in the length of the head ; 

 the distance across the forehead is 1|- diameter ; that from the muzzle 

 to the eye 2\ such diameters. The distance from the muzzle to the angle 

 of the mouth is contained 3 J times in the length of the head. The upper 

 jaw is a little less than one diameter of the eye longer than the lower. 

 The nostrils and their lobulets, the pores of the head and the lateral line 

 resemble those of O. boro. The very minute whitish pores beneath the 

 lateral line are placed at a distance from each other of two diameters of 

 the eye. On the mesial line of the tip of the upper jaw appear two series, 

 each consisting of three small pointed recurvous teeth. At a short distance 

 behind the latter commences the series of the mesial line of the palate ; 



Fishes of the Ganges.) — Of 0. minimus, McClelland, it is farther said : ' ' the distance 

 from the muzzle to the branchial apertures, is equal to the distance from these to the 

 commencement of the dorsal." In the figure, however, the former distance slightly, 

 yet perceptibly, exceeds the latter, just as it is represented in the figures of 0. hijala, 

 Buchanan Hamilton. In 0. caudatus McClelland, the distance from the base of the 

 pectorals to the dorsal is described as equalling half the distance from the pectorals to 

 the end of the muzzle. In Mr. McClelland's figure, however, the former distance 

 is represented as contained 2f times in the latter. 



