PISCES THORACICI. OPHICEPHALUS. 
47 
OPHICEPHALUS. 
GENERIC CHARACTER. 
Caput depressum, squamis vai'iis. Bloch. 
The head depressed, with scales of an 
unusual and different shape from those 
on the body. 
No. CLXII. 
Ophicephalus corpore lanceolato , squamoso, lubrico; tinea lateralis infracta; pinnis pecto- 
ralibus caudeeque rotundatis. 
The Ophicephalus with a lanceolate, squamous, lubricous, body ; the lateral line in¬ 
fracted ; the pectoral and caudal fin rounded. 
Ophicephalus striatus Block. Part x. p. 117. Tab. 359. 
Called by the Natives Muttah. 
X 
B. v. D. 45. P. 15. V. 6. A. 26. C. 14. 
The body lanceolate, roundish, compressed, squamous, lubricous. The scales on the head very different in 
shape from those on the body. 
The head broader than the body, depressed, hardly declivous, covered with remarkably large, bony, angular 
scales, contiguous, not imbricate ; the rostrum naked. The mouth wide, horizontal, rounded; lips thin; jaws 
extractile, the under somewhat longer. The fore teeth above and below, in several rows, close and small: in 
the under jaw behind are some larger curve teeth. The tongue short, sharp, smooth, free. On each side of 
the palate a phalanx of small teeth. The eyes supreme, near the rostrum, small, round, the iris orange, the 
orbit deep. Nostrils double, round; one close to the orbit, the other on the verge of the rostrum: near the 
latter a small tubulus, hardly visible in the dead subject. The branchial opercula oblong, squamous, the pos¬ 
terior margin ciliate; the membrane exposed ; the aperture arched, lateral and gular. 
The trunk. The back almost straight, declining very gently towards the tail. The abdomen straight, 
convex; the sides rounded at the shoulders, more compressed towards the tail. The branchiae tuberculate, and 
rough. The lateral line conspicuous, not carinate; slopes gently from the upper edge of the opercula till on a 
line with the eleventh ray of the dorsal fin, then bends abruptly, and runs straight along the middle of the 
tail. The anus nearer the head than the caudal fin. 
The Jins. The dorsal, consisting of forty-five ramous rays nearly of equal length till near the end, possesses 
the whole of rhe back from the shoulders to within less than an inch of the tail; the pectoral round, of moderate 
size; the ventral very short; the anal little more than half the length of the dorsal, but similar in shape ; the 
caudal oblong, round. 
The colour of the head and back very dark, or nearly black; approaching the lateral line it grows a few 
shades lighter, and, extending over it, forms a row of oblong-conical marks pointing downwards, the interstices 
