42 SQUALID.E. 



or middle tooth towards each comer of the mouth. The tongue is broad and short, 

 quite smooth, pale bluish -grey. 



The top of the head is slightly convex, quite plain, but with a small, pale, 

 oblong, smooth spot in the middle between the eyes ; which, though observed in 

 two individuals, may perhaps be only the effect of injury or friction. No pores at 

 all are visible about the head, or elsewhere, whilst the individual is fresh ; but, 

 after being kept twenty-four hours, the whole head and muzzle, both above and 

 beneath, appear pretty thickly sprinkled with pores, which form, however, no re- 

 gular figures or pattern, and are very inconspicuous. 



Lateral line very indistinct, but straight and simple. A kind of false secondary 

 lateral line extends below it from the upper axil of the pectoral to the ventral fins, 

 where it disappears ; and here sometimes begins, a little higher up, on the flanks, 

 another waved line, or rather the dark edge of a deeper-coloured cloud or patch, 

 extending to the caudal fin : but these are merely superficial variable marks or 

 stains. 



The skin is all over coarsely granulate or shagreened like sand-paper, and more 

 coarsely on the belly than elsewhere : but it is in no part hispid or hairy. Through 

 the lens the granulations are found to be caused by close-pressed or almost imbedded 

 tricuspidate or dagger-shaped scales ; the middle point of which is produced or acu- 

 minate, and the side-denticle, or short toothlet at its base, set on at nearly right 

 angles, forming a sort of cross, like the obelus, or dagger, used in printing for a 

 mark of reference. The elongated middle point is not in any way produced into 

 a hair or filament.* Thus there is no appreciable difference between these scales and 

 those of a Scylimn as figured by MM. Miiller and Henle in their plate of S. 

 Edicardsii, except that they are somewhat narrower or more slender and acuminate 

 in proportion to their depth or breadth at the base. 



The first dorsal fin is placed half-way between the tip of the muzzle and the 

 origin of the caudal fin ; i. e. considerably forwarder than half the whole length of 

 the body and tail together, and nearer to the pectoral than to the ventral fins. It 

 is low, and rather small and narrow, sublunate or oblongo-arcuate, reclining back- 

 wards ; its front edge furnished with a short, triangular, recumbent, horny spine, 

 about half the height of the fin itself, and grooved on each side. 



Half-way between the first dorsal and the origin of the caudal fins, but on the 

 opposite part of the body beneath, are the ventral fins ; these are rather small and 

 low, narrow-trapeziform, acuminate behind, and connected by a web both to each 

 other and to the body at their inner edge. Their clasper or appendage in the 

 male is without a spine. 



The second dorsal fin begins just opposite the hind tips of the ventral fins, still 

 leaving a considerable space behind it and the beginning of the caudal fin, to which, 

 however, its produced acuminate and slender hinder end nearly reaches. It is much 

 larger than the first dorsal fin ; its shape trapeziform and appendiculato-caudate, 

 or with the hinder point produced into a slender sort of tail, and with the outer 

 margin sinuate or with a wide notch. The spine at its anterior edge is long and 

 slender, subpellucid, whitish towards the point, recurved, and shaped as in the first 

 dorsal fin, but twice as long, and reaching nearly to the rounded fore-point of the 

 fin. It is grooved more strongly than the spine of the first dorsal fin, especially at 

 the back ; resembling the nail or claw of a bird. 



The pectoral fins are broad and truncate, subquadrangular, scarcely twice as long 

 as broad, placed far back from the tip of the muzzle, so that they reach nearly to a 

 line through the commencement of the first dorsal fin. The upper axil of their 



* In his Spinax niycr, the Prince of Musignano remarks " I tubercoli della pelle sono tcrminati 

 da una ])unta filifomic, ondc il pesce acquista iin apparenza lanosa." — Fauna Ilalica. 



