192 Apodal Fishes of Bengal, 



The stomach is an expansion of the oesophagus into a long spindle- 

 shaped wide tube, tapering equally at either end, and contracting 

 gradually behind into a narrow intestine, which again gradually ex- 

 pands almost to the size of the stomach ; the whole, including the oeso- 

 phagus being one continuous straight tube. There seems to be no pyloric 

 valve, the contraction of the first portion of the intestine answering the 

 purpose of one. 



The liver consists of a single elongated lobe of great length, commen- 

 cing immediately behind the pericardium. It envelopes the lower surface 

 of the stomach, and terminates about the middle of the abdomen. 



Hab. — Sandoway on the Arracan Coast. As already remarked, we 

 have been indebted to the zeal and kindness of Captain Phayre, Prin- 

 cipal Assistant to the Commissioner of Arracan, for the only specimen 

 hitherto found. 



PNEUMABRANCHUS striatus. PL xiii. 



Unibranchapertura Cuchia, Buch. 



This species was first noticed by Buchanan Hamilton in 

 his work on the Fishes of the Ganges, p. 16, who referred it 

 to the genus Unibranchapertura of Lacepede, or what is the 

 same thing, Synbranchus, Bl. 



The whole form of the animal, says Buchanan, having no vestige of 

 a fin, resembles strongly a serpent. In stating it to be without any 

 vestige of a fin, as well as devoid of scales, Buchanan proves that he 

 examined it very carelessly. 



But there was no such thing as accurate observations in this parti- 

 cular order of Fishes, prior at least to the publication of the Regne 

 Animal. Even since then, from the great general sameness of these 

 animals, different species and even genera have been described under 

 the same name. 



The head is somewhat depressed and triangular, being rather broad- 

 er than the body, while it becomes considerably narrower at the muz- 

 zle ; the jaws are both precisely of the same length. The lips are soft, so 

 as to allow of a little tube-like aperture being formed between them at 

 the apex of the muzzle, which seems to be in some degree essential 

 to the peculiar manner in which the functions of respiration are per- 

 formed. The lower jaw is narrower at the apex than the upper, and the 

 muzzle being raised to the surface of the water, the animal by laterally 



