180 Apodal Fishes of Bengal. 



5. There is a remarkable species described by Buchanan, (Gangetic 

 Fishes, p. 24,) as an inhabitant of the estuaries of the Ganges, under the 

 name of Murcena vamos, which T have never met with. The upper-jaw 

 is much longer than the lower. The head is described as oval, and 

 nearly twice as broad as the body; the eyes small and placed near 

 (the crown ?) " high up." The body is slender, of a dirty brownish- 

 green above; below, dingy white. There may be several other species 

 of this genus in India, but these are all I have met with in the lower 

 provinces. 



MURiENESOX, J. M. 



This genus is distinguished from the Congers of Europe, 

 by its peculiar dentition, and long slender pointed jaws, hard 

 lips, and the absence of tubular nasal apertures. The species 

 occupy an equivalent place in the East, with the Congers of 

 the Western world. 



They usually possess two or more rows of teeth on the 

 edges of the jaws, besides a few scattered, prominent, coni- 

 cal hooked teeth at the apex of each jaw, which is slightly 

 dilated and rounded for their reception. There is also a 

 notch in the upper-jaw behind the apex, for the reception of 

 the cluster of large teeth at the apex of the lower jaw, which 

 is shorter than the upper. 



The stomach is a blind sack with a very short intestine 

 given off from it at the anterior extremity. The liver, though 

 large, is short, ''and placed in front of the stomach, envelop- 

 ing the pyloric valve. The air-vessel is almost a third of 

 the entire length, tapering equally at either end to a round 

 point. The heart is placed as in ordinary fishes, near the 

 branchial apertures. There are twenty-one long and slender 

 branchial rays, and four branchial combs, supported by slen- 

 der bony arches on either side. There is a row of very 

 prominent distant teeth along the middle of the vomer, sur- 

 rounded by a compact row of very small close-set teeth. 



1. MURjENESOX EXODENTATA. PL viii. fig. 4. 

 This species is distinguished by a row of long, distant, conical teeth 

 on the vomer, with a parallel row of small close-set palatine teeth 



