ANTHIAS SACER. 23 



The sides of the lower jaw are furnished, like the upper, with teeth hooking 

 forwards, straighter to wards the front ; and on each side, fitting, when the mouth 

 is closed, behind the larger teeth of the upper jaw, there is a pair of much larger 

 and stronger teeth, or sometimes only one, hooked strongly backwards, in an op- 

 posite direction to the rest. On each side just in front, and growing, as it were, 

 out of the gum, below the line or level of the rest, stands a single, strong, conic, 

 canine tooth pointing forwards. 



The tongue is»free, narrow, thin in front, and quite smooth. 



Edge of the preopercle nearly vertical and straight ; its teeth fine, regularly 

 enlarging downwards, till at the rounded angle there is one abruptly larger than 

 all the rest. Below this they are more irregular and distant, but larger than 

 above the angle. The edge of the interopercle is usually entire ; that of the 

 subopercle is sparingly and irregularly serrulate.* 



The 'opercle is rather narrow, furnished with three distinct angles near the 

 top at its hinder edge, the two lower of which are produced into strong, sharp, 

 flattened spines ; but the third or uppermost can scarcely be called more than a 

 bony point or angle. Of the two spines, the uppemiost is larger, more conspicu- 

 ous, and produced ; the lower less distinct and shorter. The whole is covered 

 with five or six rows of scales, quite up to the base of the spines ; behind which 

 there is a skinny border, covered with very minute scales, and produced into 

 angles, corresponding with the two upper spines or angles only. 



The lateral line rises obliquely at its origin, following the curve of the back, not 

 far below the base of the dorsal fin, to its end ; it then descends to the middle of 

 the body, where it makes an abrupt bend, and continues in a straight line to 

 the base of the caudal fin, along the middle of the fleshy part of the tail. Each of 

 its scales is marked by a prominent, broad, single tube. 



The ordinary scales are large, with a rough echinulate border, and the edge 

 ciliate. 



The dorsal fin begins quite on the nape ; and although its hinder soft portion is 

 more produced backwards than the rest, it is even and continuous. The first spine 

 is rather short ; the second twice as long ; the third is as once produced to twice, 

 or twice and a- half the length of the second; the fourth, and following ones, again, 

 are only a little longer than the second, and all are of nearly equal length. All the 

 spines are rather strong, and furnished with a skinny filament, like a ship's pen- 

 non, attached just below their point. The soft-rayed hinder portion of the fin ap- 

 pears, from the prolongation of its hinder rays, when collapsed, to be produced into 

 a filament like the caudal fin ; but when expanded, it is scarcely pointed. Its 

 rays are close and crowded. A single row of minute imbricated scales extends 

 some distance up the web between each ray. The front axils of some of the first 

 and hinder spines are also similarly, but more slightly, scaly, the scales rising 

 with the spine. Still, though the web of the spiny part is, generally speaking, 

 "naked," the base of the soft-rayed hinder portion is distinctly "^ scaled." The 

 spiny fore part only of this fin is seated in a groove. 



The anal fin commences opposite the soft-rayed part of the dorsal fin, with which 

 it corresponds. It is short, pointed behind, the anterior three or four soft rays, 



* In MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes's figure^ both the interopercle and subopercle are represented 

 Bernilate. In their description, the latter only is expressly said to be so : " II y a aussi quelques 

 dentelures au bord inferieur de son subopercule." Cuv. and Val. Hist. ii. 251. 



The fact is, that in the Madeiran fish at least, the interopercle varies, sometimes on different sides 

 of the same individual, from quite entire to subserrulate, or with two or three teeth crowded at its 

 upper comer ; though it is generally on both sides peifectly entire. The subopercle is, however, 

 almost always more or less serrulate. 



D -2 



