412 Description of a collection of Fishes from China. 



TeTRODON FASCIATUS. t. XXl.flg, 2, 



This species is nearly allied to T. oscellatus of Bloch, 

 which was long since found by Osbeck* in the river of Can- 

 ton, and by Kasmpfer in the waters of Japan. It is dis- 

 tinguished from that species by the presence of several trans- 

 verse bands crossing the back; as well as by the dark spot 

 and yellow ring which surround the base of the dorsal fin; 

 while T. oscellatus has but a single band on the shoulder. 

 Moreover the entire body as far back as the dorsal and anal 

 fin of this species is covered with minute spines ; while the 

 species figured in Bloch and originally described by Ksempfer, 

 is stated to have the back free from spines, which are confined 

 only to the dilatable portion of the body. That this species may 

 have been taken for T. oscellatus is however highly probable. 



The following are the characters of the species in Dr. 

 Playfair's collection. The anterior parts of the body as far 

 back as the dorsal fin, are covered with very minute spines. 

 Five narrow light-coloured bands cross the head and back ; 

 the first of these is situated between the nostrils, the second 

 between the eyes, the third between the eyes and the 

 pectoral, the fourth is extended between the pectorals, and 



any other writer, here proposed to found his genus Opkichthys, but upon 

 mistaken characters. The genus Monopterus was founded by Lacepede, 

 on the MS. description by Commerson, of a species of supposed Conger 

 Eelj found in the straits of Sunda. The description is minute, but vague 

 as to the most essential and peculiar characters ; so much so, that Cuvier 

 conjectures the supposed Conger to be the Unibranchpertura lisse, Lacep. 

 The inefficiency of the characters assigned to the genus Monopterus, can 

 require no better proof than the fact, that Cuvier himself, Buchanan, Mr. 

 Taylor, and all subsequent writers refer the species that might have been 

 supposed to belong to it, to Synhranchus, Bl., and Unibranchapertura, 

 Lacep. In going over this ground a-new, I have found several species 

 of this singular genus in the East, which will be described in our notice 

 of the Bengal species of this order. Even since the above observations 

 were written, I received another remarkable undescribed genus of this 

 family from Arrakan, which I had not met with before. 

 • Voyage a la Chine. 



