Page:Travels in West Africa, Congo Français, Corisco and Cameroons (IA travelsinwestafr00kingrich).pdf/769

 specimen. These differences could be accounted for by a somewhat less perfect state of preservation of Sauvage's specimen.

Snout short, rounded, parabolic, with the small mouth antero-inferior. Five notched teeth above and six below. The eye is small, half the length of the snout and scarcely one-seventh of that of the head. Body rather elongate, its greatest depth being contained $4 1⁄3$ times, the length of the head $4 1⁄5$ times in the total (without caudal). Caudal peduncle compressed, moderately long, shorter than the head, its depth being one-half of its length. Origin of the dorsal fin behind that of the anal and twice as distant from the end of the snout as from the root of the caudal. The length of the base of the anal equals that of the head. Pectoral fin shorter than the head, nearly reaching the ventral. Ventral fin more than half as long as the pectoral, and half as long as the distance of its root from the vent. Scales rather small; there are eight in an oblique series running from the first anal ray to the lateral line, and five longitudinal series on the side of the caudal peduncle. Uniform brown.

A single specimen was obtained in Old Calabar. This species is nearest to M. liberiensis (Steind.), but readily distinguished by a shorter anal fin, with a smaller number of rays.

Snout short, obtuse, as long as the eye, with the mouth at the lower side. The mouth is very broad, twice as broad as the eye, armed above with twenty-two and below with thirty notched teeth; its corner is beyond the vertical from the front margin of the eye. The upper profile of the head is