142 ZOOLOGY OF THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE. 



Family.— ECHENEIDID^. 



Echeneis Remora. Linn. 

 Mr. Darwin took a small specimen of this fish from off a shark in the Atlan- 

 tic Ocean, near St. Paul's Rocks. It is not four inches long. It has eighteen 

 pairs of laminae on the head ; and a rough disk on the middle of the tongue :* 

 caudal lunate. 



Family.— ANGUILLID^. 



Anguilla australis. Richards. 



Anguilla australis, Richardson, Proceed, of Zool. Soc. 1841, p. 22. 

 Form. — Very similar to the A. latirostris, Yarr., but the upper jaw rather shorter and broader, making 

 the gape, which reaches to a vertical line from the posterior part of the orbit, wider. Teeth 

 rather stronger. Dorsal commencing considerably beyond the first third, and not much in 

 advance of the middle point, of the entire length ; much less elevated than in the A. latirostris, 

 its height scarcely exceeding one-fifth of the depth, which last is about one-seventeenth of the 

 entire length. Vent a little posterior to the commencement of the dorsal. 



The distance from the end of the snout to the insertion of the pectorals is rather less than 

 one-eighth of the entire length : the form of the pectorals is lanceolate. The tail is rounded, 

 much as in the A. latirostris. 



in. lin. 



Length (entire) 17 3 



From end of snout to commencement of dorsal . .76 



From the same to insertion of pectoral . . . .22 

 From the same to vent . . . . . .79 



Colour — (In spirits.) Appears similar to that of the common eel. 

 Habitat, New Zealand. 



The above eel was procured by Mr. Darwin in fresh water in the month of 

 December, in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. It so nearly accords with the 

 A. australis of Dr. Richardson from Van Dieman's Land, that I can hardly sup- 

 pose it to be a distinct species. The vent, however, would seem to be a trifle 

 backwarder, and the body deeper in proportion to its length. Without seeing 

 more specimens, it is impossible to say what importance is to be attached to these 

 points of discrepancy. 



* I notice this circumstance, because Mr. Lowe, in the " Proceedings of the Zoological Society," (1 839, p. 89.) 

 has briefly described two species of this fish, which he calls E. Remora and E. pallida respectively, the former 

 having the tongue smooth, and the latter rough in the middle, besides other differences. 



The above specimen obtained by Mr. Darwin, as well as two others in the Museum of the Cambridge Philo- 

 sophical Society, have the tongue rough ; though in their other characters, especially colour, they would seem 

 to be Mr. Lowe's Remora. Cuvier, in his " Regne Animal," appears to consider the rough tongue as charac- 

 teristic of the whole genus. 



