91 
of Edinburgh, Session 1872 - 73 . 
list of corresponding species found in the great Calabar river of 
Western Africa. The specimen seems to correspond very closely 
with Dr Gunther’s typical description of the 0. obscurus, with the 
exception of some slight proportional details of measurements and 
the presence of one or two more rays in some of the fins. I forwarded 
the fish to Dr Gunther for his examination, and he writes me that 
“ the Ojphiocephalus is closely allied to, if not identical with, the 
obscurus , but it has five or six more dorsal rays than the type.” 
We must, therefore, perhaps, wait for the examination of additional 
specimens, to see whether some of the characters will require to he 
expanded a little, in Dr Gunther’s description of the fish. 
(Since this paper was read to the Society, Dr Gunther informs 
me that the British Museum has recently received a specimen 
from the river Congo, with thirty anal rays.) 
I subjoin Dr Gunther’s description of the Nile fish, taken from 
the appendix to Petherick’s “ Travels in Central Africa,” vol. ii. 
London, 1869, p. 215. Dr Gunther had, however, previously 
described and named this fish in his general “Catalogue of Acan- 
thopterygian Fishes,” vol. iii., London, 1861, p. 478, from a speci- 
men in the collection of the British Museum, the locality of which 
was not known : — 
“ Ophiocephalus obscurus , A. Gunther. 
D. 42. A. 26-29. (L. lat. 70. L. trans. 7/14.) 
“ The height of the body is nearly one-eighth of the total length, the 
length of the head nearly one-fourth; the width of the inter-orbital space 
is more than the extent of the snout, and one-fourth of the length of the 
head. 'The cleft of the mouth is wide, the maxillary extending behind the 
orbit. The scales on the upper surface of the head are of moderate size, 
those on the neck small; there are thirteen series of scales between the 
orbit and the angle of the preoperulum. The pectoral does not extend 
on to the origin of the anal, and its length is one-half that of the head; 
the length of the ventral is three quarters of that of the pectoral. Caudal 
rounded, its length being six times and one-third in the total. Blackish, 
lighter below, with dark stripes along the series of scales; a series of black 
blotches along the side; head with two indistinct oblique black spots along 
its base. Pectoral and ventral variegated with blackish. Chin black, with 
white spots. Length seventy-seven lines. Collected at Gondokoro.” 
The following are some of the slight differences in the specimen 
got in the Old Calabar River : — 
