370 ANACANTHINI. 



Skin scaleless, smooth to the touch, and very loosely attached 

 to the muscles. When narrowly inspected it exhibits a vast 

 number of very fine vertical, rough-looking lines, with smooth 

 intermediate spaces, that are scarcely discernible by the unas- 

 sisted eye. These lines appear to be minute folds due to the 

 action of subcutaneous muscles, for no traces of them appear 

 in the stretched skin when placed under a microscope : the 

 magnified integuments appear then to be studded throughout 

 with innumerable small, round, glandular bodies. 



The lateral line runs below the middle height of the body- 1 

 to which it descends gradually from the suprascapulars, and is 

 composed of distant minute, open pores, which disappear a 

 little beyond the anus. 



Fins. Small skinny lobes surmount the tips of the anal 

 rays, and similar thoiigh less conspicuous ones terminate the 

 lower rays of the pectorals ; and they also exist, though more 

 indistinctly and smaller, on the dorsal. The rays of the pec- 

 torals are branched at the tips ; those of the dorsal are fissured, 

 the first one alone being simple, taper, and shorter than the 

 following ones, without evident joints. The first three anal 

 rays are small, but, like all the rest, distinctly jointed. At 

 the extremity of the spinal column the short slender rays 

 which represent the caudal are curved down, so as to form, as 

 it were, the last anal rays. Whether this peculiar structure 

 belong to the species, or is an accidental variety, or merely the 

 result of injury, I cannot determine, having seen only one 

 specimen. In the following fish, considered to be a variety 

 by Kroyer, the rays at the extremity of the tail are straight. 



The skull is moderately convex transversely, without promi- 

 nent ridges, and increases in transverse diameter towards the 

 occiput, which is shelving. There are twenty-two abdominal 

 vertebrse and seventy-one caudal ones. The ribs are very small, 

 being shorter as well as much more slender than the parapo- 

 physes. 



Dimensions. 



Total length 6'7 inches. 



From premaxillary symphysis to anus .... .2-5 



