369 



BALISTES. 



The body compressed, the skin both of the head and body covered 

 with regularly formed plates, which do not overlap each other like 

 scales; the mouth small, with distinct, strong, and broad teeth. The 

 gill openings simple, close above the pectoral fins. Two dorsal fins; 

 the first with very strong spines, of which the first is much the 

 longest, and of peculiar setting on, so that they can be depressed only 

 in conjunction with each other. 



FILEFISH. 



CAPRISCUS. MEDITERRANEAN FILEFISH. 

 Batistes caprisens, Linn^us. Willoughby; p. 152, PI. I 19. 



" " CUVIEK. 



" " Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 472. 



" " Jenyns; Manual, p. 492. 



This fish is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean, where Risso 

 reports it as showing itself chiefly in the hot season of the 

 year; but it appears to be scarcely common even there, since 

 Willoughby was not able to obtain an example, except as 

 preserved in a museum; and he appears to have known nothing 

 of another species of the same family, which is found in the 

 same sea, and with which the one under consideration might 

 be confounded; but which may be easily distinguished by its 

 more lengthened shape, when the two are compared together. 

 It was in the month of August, 1827, that the first British 

 example on record was obtained on the coast of Sussex by J. 

 G. Children, Esq.; and which is now preserved in the British 

 Museum, but how it was taken is not stated. 



Another specimen is also said to have been met with in the 

 Bay of Galway, in Ireland, but no further particulars are given; 



VOL. IV. 3 B 



