O P H 
O P H 
feveral ftruftures on the well of Ophel: Man a (Teh built a 
well to the weft of jerufalem, and the fountain of Gihon, 
beyond the city of David, from the fifh-gnte as far as 
Ophel. After the captivity., the Netbinims, that they 
might be near their temple-fervice, dwelt at Ophel. 
Thefe things incline me to think it was about the fouth- 
eaft corner of Jerufalem. See 2 Citron, xxvii. 3.xxxiii. 14. 
Neh. iii. 26. xi. 21. Brawn's Did. of the Bible. 
OPHI'ASIS, f. .[Greek.] A difeafe, in which the hair 
grows thin and falls oft’. 
OPHICEPH'ALUS, /'. the Snak-e-head ; in ichthyo¬ 
logy, a genus of thoracic fifties, the characters of which 
are—Head flat, with fcales of varied fhape; body elon¬ 
gated. This is one of the new genera firft defcribed by 
Bloch. The fcales upon fi(h in general are uniform in 
fhape, differing only in fize upon different parts ; but, in 
this genus, the fcales of the head are of various fhapes, 
not uniform with thofe on the trunk. The fcales differ 
alfo in being rough with protuberances, while thofe of 
fifh in general are radiated and fmooth ; and, by the num¬ 
ber of thofe radii, fome have pretended to difcern the age 
of a fifh. The body is long, and furnifhed with feven 
fins, of which all the rays are flexible; the.dorfal and anal 
are long, the tail round. The waters of Tranquebar pro¬ 
duce thefe fifh ; they haunt the rivers and lakes of that 
country, where they lie with their heads ftuck in the 
ftime or mud; and the head is fo fafhioned as to prevent 
the mud from getting in with the water, and injuring 
the operation of the gills; infide the pofterior gill-cover 
there is a round bony plate, convex towards the aperture 
of the mouth, and concave towards the hollow of the gills, 
andfaftened perpendicularly to the operculum : this piece, 
advancing to the operculum, clofes the hollow behind 
the arch of the gills, fo as to leave a paflage to the water, 
but to prevent the dirt from entering; alfo, on the con¬ 
cave fide of the gills, there is a great number of little ele¬ 
vations with fpines, which preclude the entrance of folid 
bodies. There are three fpecies. 
1. Ophicephalus punftatus, the dotted fnake-head. 
The black points or dots on the body form the fpecific 
chara'der and the name. There are 5 rays in the mem¬ 
brane of the gills, 16 in the peCtoral fin, 6 in the ventral, 
zz in the anal, 14 in the tail, 31 in the dorfal. This fifh 
has a blunt fnout, with various-fhaped fcales on the head ; 
the jaws are nearly of equal length, and furnifhed With 
fmall fharp teeth ; the palate is rough, the tongue fmooth. 
The lip-bones are narrow'; the noftrils double, and near 
the eyes. The eyes are fmall, and near the mouth ; the 
S il is black, the iris blue. The gill-covers are fmooth 
rounded ; the aperture is wide, the membrane con¬ 
cealed. The belly is fhort, and the anus much nearer the 
head than the tail. The lateral line is interrupted by the 
peCloral fin, and then runs midway between the back and 
belly. The body is long and flefhy; the back and belly 
are round ; the pedforal, ventral, and tail, fins, are fhort 
and rounded; all the rays are foft and four-branched. 
The colour of this fifh is a dirty white, growfing black 
towards the back; black is alfo the colour of the fins, 
except at their bale, which is grey. This fpecies is found 
in rivers and lakes on the coaft of Coromandel ; it is one 
of thofe numerous kinds with which the rivers of that 
country, efpecially the Kaiveri, abound in the rainy lea- 
fan, June and July, when the waters flow in torrents 
from the mountains of Gate, fo that all the fields in 
Tanfchaur are inundated : all the lakes, rivers, and ca¬ 
nals, are then full of filh, w'hich has furnifhed fome per- 
fons with an argument in favour of the fpontaneous ge¬ 
neration of fillies. This fpecies is about ten inches long, 
well-tafted, and extremely wholefome. It fpawns in 
July, for which purpofe it pafles from the rivers into the 
lakes ; it feeds on water-plants, of which it griaws the 
roots, for it is fond of digging in the mud. This is re- 
prefented on the annexed Plate, at fig. 1. and the head is 
fhown feparately, in a different pofition, at b. 
2. Ophicephalus ftriatus, theftreaked fnake-head : yel¬ 
low and brown ftripes, or ftreaks, on the body and fins. 
fill 
Themembrane of the gills is fupported by 5 rays; there 
are 17 in the peftorai fin, 6 in the ventral, 26 in the anal, 
17 in the tail, and 43 in the dorfal. The head is covered 
with fcales of various fhapes. The teeth are fmall and 
fharp; the palate alfo is rough ; but the tongue is fmooth, 
and movable. The noftrils, in this fpecies, are fingle and 
round.. Both eyes and noftrils are near the mouth; the 
eyes have a black pupil in a yellow iris. The body is 
long; the fcales thin, but rough. The back is very dark 
green, the belly white and yellow. The rays of the dor- 
lal and anal fins are three-branched, thofe of the reft more 
diverfely ramified. The natives of Malabar call this fpe- 
cies wrahl; the largeft are an ell long, and as thick as a 
man’s arm. They lie in lakes in the mud ; fo that they 
are not caught with nets, but by means of vvicker-bafkets 
of a conical fhape open at both ends; the broad opening 
is clapped dowmwards here and there at the bottom of 
the water, and, when the motion of a fifh is perceived, 
the fifherman thrufts his arm through the narrow end, 
and fecures it. The flefh is much efteemed, and recom¬ 
mended to weak and ailing people. See the Plate, fig. 2. 
3. Ophicephalus hologymnofus, the naked fnake-head : 
fcales hardly perceptible; tail-fin very fhort, and almoft 
ftraight; rays of the ventral fins united like a flefhy bar¬ 
bie ; fourteen narrow tranfverfe bands, and three very 
fhort longitudinal ftripes, behind them, on each fide the 
tail. The dorfal fin has 18 rays, the anal 16, the tail 10. 
This fpecies is made a diftinft genus by Cepede, which he 
calls Hologymnofus, from the Greek 0A0?, entirely, yiy.voj, 
naked or bare, becaufe it has no fcales viable to the 
naked eye. The jaws are nearly equal in length, anil 
furnifhed with fmall fharp teeth. The hinder piece of 
the operculum is lengthened backwards, and rounded at 
the extremity. The dorfal fin is long and low ; the anal 
equally narrow, but not fo long; before each ray of this 
fin is a bright lpot; and its upper part is marked with 
dark edging, and with another ftill darker. The tranf¬ 
verfe ftripes are infulated ; they reach neither to the up¬ 
per nor to the lower edge of the tail; nor do the ftraight 
lines which are behind them touch either them or the tail- 
fin. The fhape of the tail is remarkable; it is broader 
where it joins to the tail-fin than a little higher up, and 
higher ftill it widens again. There is a narrow ftripe, and 
fome irregular fpots, on the anal fin ; and fome clouded 
fpots upon the head and gill-covers. Found in the great 
equatorial ocean by Commerfon. 
OPHID'IUM, f. in ichthyology, a genus of apodal 
fifties, the characters of which are—Head nearly deftitute 
of fcales; teeth both in the jaws and palate; gill-mem¬ 
brane feven-rayed, and with a wide aperture ; body fword- 
fliaped, (Bloch fays ferpent-fhaped, which anfwers bet¬ 
ter to the name.) There are eight fpecies, which oc- 
cafionally haunt the Red Sea, the Eaft Indies, the Me¬ 
diterranean, and the North Sea. Their fcales are foft 
and tender. 
1. Ophidium barbatum, the bearded ophidium : four 
barbies or cirri from the lower jaw. There are 7 rays in 
the membrane of the gills, 17 in the peftoral fin, 250 in 
the anal, tail, and dorfal, which are united. The head is 
fmall, and without fcales; the upper jaw is the longeft ; 
the lips are ftrong ; the jaws, palate, and throat, are ex- 
afperated with a number of fmall teeth. The eyes have 
a black pupil in a filvery iris, and are covered with a pel¬ 
lucid membrane, which is only a continuation of the 
common lkin ; there are four fmall foramina between the 
eyes and mouth ; the tongue is fmooth, fhort, and nar¬ 
row. The gills have a wide aperture. The body is late¬ 
rally comprefled. The back is rounded, and of a bluifli 
colour. The lateral line is ftraight, and near the back. 
The belly is white; the anus nearer the head than the 
tail. The pefloral fins are fmall, brown in the middle, 
grey towards the edges. The dorfal fin goes round the 
tail and joins the anal, fo that the tail is as it were in a 
cafe, or ftirrup ; thefe fins are narrow, of a whitifh colour 
edged with black. 
This fpecies is found in the Red Sea and the Mediter? 
ranean. 
