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Show 18G8.] LIEUT.-COL. PLAYFAIR ON FISHES FROM MADAGASCAR. 11 Cheeks swollen, with five or six longitudinal lines of minute pores. Head entirely naked, with the exception of a few small scales on the superior portion of the operculum. Teeth in jaws in villiform bands, with an inner series of larger ones, and an outer row of canines. First dorsal lower than body; the spine and all the rays flexible; the first and second rays somewhat produced. Longest ray of second dorsal (the last) shorter than the first of the anterior dorsal. Caudal rounded, rather longer than the length of head to posterior limb of praeoperculum. Anal with the rays very much branched. None of the pectoral rays silk-like. Scales largest on the sides of body and tail, smallest on the belly and nape and around the root of pectorals, each is imbedded in a membranous base. Colour uniform brown ; a black spot, smaller than the eye, at the base of the anterior dorsal, between the spine and the first ray; both dorsals with more or less distinct longitudinal rows of darker spots ; ventrals and anal minutely punctulated with brown. Length 15J inches. Two specimens were obtained. Hab. Mouroundava River. 13. PERIOPHTHALMUS KCELREUTERI, C. & V. The most interesting specimen in this collection is a new species of Xiphogadus. Unfortunately it is in a very bad state of preservation, having been partially digested in the stomach of another fish. Half of the lower jaw is wanting, and the ventral region is so much destroyed that it is impossible to ascertain the nature of the ventral fins ; the other organs, however, are tolerably perfect. 14. XIPHOGADUS MADAGASCARIENSIS, sp.n. D. 122. A. 96? Body exceedingly elongate, the greatest height is contained fifty-four times in the total length, and the length of the head seventeen times in the same. Snout obtusely conical, shorter than the diameter of the eye, projecting beyond the cleft of the mouth. Tentacles none. Width of interorbital space rather more than half the diameter of the eye. Upper jaw with rather feeble canines, those in the lower jaw somewhat stronger. Dorsal commencing above the anterior margin of orbit and extending almost as far as the caudal fin; the anterior rays are longest, the first being thrice and a half the height of the body. The anal appears to commence below the twenty-seventh dorsal ray ; it is lower than the dorsal, and extends slightly behind it. Caudal short, not much longer than the height of the body. Colour uniform brown. Length 11| inches. Hab. Mouroundava River. 15. MUGIL SMITHII. Mugil microlepis, Smith, 111. Zool. S. Afr. Pise. pl. 28. f. 2 (not Riipp. or Bleek.). M. smithii, Giinth. Fish. iii. p. 447. Hab. Mouroundava River, on the west coast of Madagascar |