FISHES. 5 



The ground colour on the back is chestnut brown, distributed in five or six clouds or 

 bars, the sides are very pale, and the belly quite white. The head and whole of the body 

 down to the middle of the sides is thickly covered with small round dark brown dots, having 

 paler disks. There are also some diluted spots on the lower lip. These dots are numerous 

 on the base of the dorsal, and form rings on the spines. On the pectorals, anal and caudal, 

 the markings assume the form of five or six freckled cross-bars, and there are also a few 

 specks on the ventrals. Length, 3^ inches. 



Hab. Seas of Borneo and China. 



APISTES TtENIANOTUS, Cuv. 



Apistes tanianotus, C. et V. Hist, des Poiss. iv. p. 40-1 ; Lacepwle, t. iv. pi. 3. f. 2. exclus. descript. 

 Radii.— D. 17|7 ; A. 3|5 ; C.13-2-; P. 12; V. 1|5. 



Plate IV. Fig. 1-2. 



• 



We have two examples of this Apistes before us, one measuring three inches and three 

 quarters from Japan, and the other four inches and a half long from the Philippines. Both 

 correspond well with the detailed description of the species contained in the Histoire des 

 Poissons, but they differ from one another in colour. The Japanese specimen is of a pale, clear, 

 wood-brown, with a dark brown spot on the dorsal between the fifth and sixth spinous rays, 

 and two or three faint indications of spots on the body, besides a row of points crossing the 

 middle of the caudal rays. The specimen from the Philippines is of a much darker colour 

 generally, being deep liver-brown, and wants the dorsal spot above mentioned, though it has 

 some smaller and less distinct ones in other parts of the fin and several on the body. There 

 are two rows of points on the caudal rays. The greatest difference between the species is in 

 the fin membranes, those of the specimen from the Philippines being much thicker and more 

 spongy and opaque. The scales in both are small, roundish, and in contact with each other, 

 but not tiled. When the skin is allowed to dry, they become concave. 



In reckoning the soft rays of the dorsal and anal, we have enumerated one fewer than 

 the number quoted in the Histoire des Poissons, by considering the posterior one of each fin 

 to be divided to its base, the two branches or rays springing from the same point. 



Hab. Malay Archipelago ; Seas of China and Japan. 



APISTES LEUCOGASTER, Richardson. 

 Radii.— Br. 7; D. 13|8 ; A. 3 ( 7 ; Cll-J-i P. 15; V. 1|5. 



Plate V. Fig. 1-2. 



The preceding Apistes are more or less completely scaly, the following one is entirely 

 destitute of scales. It has a thick bluff head, from whence the moderately compressed body 



c 



