368 FOUR-HORNED TRUNKFISH. 



indeed, he received any reward whatever. It was elicited also 

 on further inquiry tliat a fish exactly similar had been taken 

 about two years before this by a fisherman of the same place; 

 and another was viewed at leisure, and particularly described 

 to myself, but not taken, by an ordinary observer, who 

 watched it in shallow water farther east on the same coast. 



The length of the specimen is ten inches, of Avhich the crust 

 measures seven inches and seven eighths; the height where 

 deepest three inches and three eighths. The head slopes 

 suddenly from the eyes. The general form compressed, sharply 

 ridged along the back, flat and wide at the belly; the section 

 of the shape therefore triangular. Eyes in front elevated, and 

 above each a prominent ridge, from which projects forward in 

 a slight curve a stout spine; the pair resembling horns. The 

 snout projects a little; mouth small, lips covering a row of 

 conical teeth; the upper row, as far as they can be counted, 

 eight, below six. Gill openings a perpendicular slit. The back 

 rises in a ridge from between the eyes, and slopes down again 

 towards the dorsal fin; and about an inch and a half before 

 this fin is a small elevation; the fin itself narrow at the root, 

 but extended in breadth. Anal fin further back, nearer the 

 tail than the dorsal. A prominent spine posteriorly on each 

 margin of the flattened surface, from which the thin border 

 rises to the place where the moveable caudal portion protrudes 

 from the crust in a straight rudder, ending in a caudal fin; 

 the border of which in this example is injured. The head 

 and body are covered with hexagonal plates, marked in lines 

 round a raised centre. The pectoral fin narrovv'. Colour 

 yellowish brown, but obviously faded. In another example the 

 border of the dorsal, anal, and caudal fins is round; the general 

 colour dark, with a tinge of blue; but this was not a British 

 specimen. 



