50 BERYCIDE. 



although tlic number of tlic ventral fin-rays proves inconstant in at least 

 one of the species, so as to afford no ground for its discrimination, 

 other differential characters have been elicited, which I have verified in a 

 vast number of examples of both hinds to be both permanent and easily 

 appreciable, and alike independent of age, sex, or season. 



The foiTTi of B. sj)lendens is oblong, moderately compressed, deepest forvv^ards 

 from the nape to the dorsal fin, contracting considerably at tlie origin of the 

 caudal ; the dorsal line but slightly arched or convex, and descending very little 

 from the origin of the dorsal fin to the tip of the remarkably short muzzle. The 

 ventral line possesses a considerably greater curvature; rising steeply from the 

 breast to the tip of the lower jaw, and again from the origin of the anal to that of 

 the caudal fin ; the space between these two points being nearly straight. The 

 greatest height of the body, at the origin of the dorsal fin, varies from one third to 

 one fourth of the entire length from the tip of the closed lower jaw to that of the 

 caudal fin forks ; not quite reaching either of these limits. The greatest thickness 

 just behind the eye equals, or very nearly equcils, half the greatest height. 



The length of the head equals the greatest height of the body, measuring as 

 before. The enormous eye is placed high up, leaving a space below it equal to its 

 own diameter, and a very narrow border above, between it and the outline of the 

 profile of the head. Its diameter is contained about twice and a half in the 

 length of the head. 



The muzzle is extremely short and abrupt, not reaching more than half its 

 diameter before the eye. The nostrils are close together, one l^efore the other ; the 

 anterior, but scarcely lower one, is round and small ; the hinder larger, and more 

 elongated or oval. A strong and prominent short spine or tooth, directed back- 

 wards on each side of the muzzle, is given off by the anterior suborliitary just 

 below the lower nostril. The upper jaw is thick and notched in the middle ; the 

 intermaxillaries are thin and slender at the sides, and furnished with a rather 

 naiTOw band of brush-like, very fine and minute, teeth. The palatines and 

 vomer are feebly armed respectively with a very narrow band and small patch of 

 similar teeth. 



The lower jaw is thickened and clumsy at the tip, which projects considerably 

 beyond the upper, and is received into its notch. Its edges are furnished with 

 a band of teeth like those of the upper jaw, but much narrower. The branches 

 which compose it are closely approximate, and conceal entirely the branchial mem- 

 branes. The tongue is free and rather broad, its surface smooth. 



Maxillaries broad, and dilated at the ends, which are overlapped by a curious 

 rough and rugged, elongated, moveable, supernumerary plate or bone, the lower 

 edge of which projects abruptly into a roughened angle, which plays into a corre- 

 sponding hollow on the surface of the maxillary bone, behind a rough projection on 

 the same. Below this loose bone the ends of the maxillaries are quite smooth, 

 with a triangular depression. 



The gape, like that of Urcmoscopus or Priacanthus, is singularly oblique ; as- 

 cending steeply at an angle of more than forty-five degi'ees ; scarcely extending 

 backwards beyond the anterior edge of the eye, but, by its vertical direction, giving 

 an uncouth and strange appearance to the mouth when closed. The ends of 

 the maxillaries reach, however, when the mouth is closed, to about the middle 

 of the eye beneath. Eye surrounded by a naked, punctate, narrow space or bor- 

 der; the upper edge of which, commencing from the spine under the fore nostril, 

 is raised, and, like the lower, finely but irregularly toothed or serrulate. This 

 border is composed of the series of suborbitary bones. Behind the eye it becomes 



