GREATER WEEVER. 47 



The general form is long, narrow, and compressed, the 

 example described measuring ten inches and three fourths in 

 length, with a breadth (where widest) of one inch and five 



eighths. The head short, compressed, flat between the eyes, 

 and rough on the summit; eyes on the fore part, high, with 

 some short spines above them; nostrils single, near the eye, 

 with a firm margin, terminated above and below by a small 

 spine, the uppermost directed upward, the lower near the 

 mouth, and inclining downward. Angle of the mouth depressed, 

 under jaw projecting, numerous teeth in both jaws; tongue 

 large. The hindmost gill-cover lengthened posteriorly, and 

 furnished with a long and sharp spine, which is directed 

 backward. The lateral line rises a little at first, passes along 

 nearer the back, and sinks suddenly near the tail: two plates 

 with rough edges at its origin. The belly short, the vent 

 being less than five inches from the front. Scales on the 

 gill-covers and body. Dorsal fins seated in a furrow; first 

 dorsal short, beginning rather before the root of the pectoral, 

 the second beginning close to the first, and reaching within 

 a short distance of the tail. Pectorals low, wide, near the 

 ventrals; the last-named fins close together, under the throat; 

 tail a little incurved. Colour yellowish brown on the back, 

 light purple below the eye; on the gill-covers yellow, with 

 sometimes light blue stripes. The body covered with narrow, 

 regular, intermingled brown and yellow lines, which run 

 obliquely from the back below, and become lighter before 

 they disappear. The fin rays generally extend beyond the 

 membrane; the first dorsal black or deep brown, the second 

 and the tail sometimes striped or mottled with yellow and 

 brown. 



Fin rays first dorsal six, second dorsal thirty-one, pectoral 

 sixteen, ventral five, and caudal thirty-one. A Weever was 

 obtained from a trawl, with a remarkable deficiency in the 

 second dorsal fin, which failed at about the third posterior 

 portion of its length for the space of an inch and a half. 

 There was no mark of a fin or its rays at that part, and the 

 intermediate bones, which stand between the fin rays and the 

 spinous processes of the vertebrae, were wanting; so that the 

 fish in fact possessed three dorsal fins. 



