52 BERYCID.E. 



acuminate ; equalling one fifth of the whole length of the fish. The rays are regu- 

 lar and slender ; the two first unbranched; the third, or first branched ray, the 

 longest. 



Ventral fins placed a little behind the pectoral, their first ray being on a line 

 with the hinder end of their base. They are ovate, triangular, large and broad, 

 but shorter and less pointed than the pectoral ; their length only equalling one 

 sixth of the entire length. Reclined, their tips reach scarcely to, or not beyond, 

 the first rays of the anal fin. Their first ray or spine is strong, pungent, and 

 strongly ribbed or grooved longitudinally ; it is from half to three fourths the 

 length of the first branched or soft ray, which also is the longest ray. These soft 

 rays vary in number from ten to thirteen ; but eleven is the number in the great 

 majority of individuals. Sometimes they vary in the two ventral fins of the same 

 fish : one example had twelve soft rays in the right fin, and thirteen in the left ; 

 another, eleven in the right, and twelve in the left. Individuals with only ten soft 

 rays are the most uncommon ; and I have not yet met with any example having 

 thirteen soft rays in both the ventral fins. Three or four elongated narrow scales 

 fonn a slight imbricated ridge, or appendage, at their anterior axil. Their last or 

 hinder soft ray is free ; and often the last two or three are simple or unbranched. 



The dorsal fin is single, placed on the middle or most convex part of the back, 

 at about an equal distance from the tip of the muzzle and the base of the caudal 

 fin, and occupying the space opposite that which lies between the end of the base 

 of the ventral, and the beginning of the anal fin. It is triangular, and high in 

 front ; its greatest height equalling half the depth of the body beneath. The 

 length of its base is always less than the length of the pectoral fins, and varies 

 from one eighth to one sixth of the entire length. Its anterior rays are thickly 

 crowded ; the hinder gradually more remote. The four first rays are spiny, 

 strong, and longitudinally grooved or striated. The first soft ray, which also is the 

 longest of all, is generally simple or unbranched : the last is forked to the base, 

 or double. The base is hidden in a groove, the scales of which become more 

 pointed, and extend a little beyond the base at the hinder end ; but the fin itself 

 is altogether bare of scales, or naked. 



The anal fin begins opposite the termination of the base of the dorsal ; and 

 except in being considerably longer in extent, though lower in front, resembles per- 

 fectly the dorsal fin in structure. It reaches nearly to the base of the caudal fin, 

 which the point of its last double ray actually attains. Its spines are strong and 

 striated ; and twenty-nine appears to be the normal number of its soft rays. 



The web in front of both the dorsal and the anal fins is curiously wrinkled lon- 

 gitudinally, or across the intervals between the spines, or rays towards their base ; 

 in the manner figured by MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes in Plectropoma puella, 

 Cuv. and Val. t. 37. 



The caudal fin is deeply forked ; the forks long, narrow, nearly equal, pointed ; 

 each furnished at its outer base with a number of accessory, short, adpressed 

 spines, which are strong and pungent, and are grooved or striate longitudinally, 

 like those of the other fins. The middle rays between the forks are very short ; 

 and the intervals between all the rays are covered by a single row of fine, membra- 

 nous, imbricated scales, running up nearly to their tips ; but very different from 

 those upon the body, which end abruptly in a triangle or semicircle, at the base of 

 the caudal fin. 



The colour of the back, fins, head, except the cheeks, of the lips, tongue, inside 

 of mouth, and throat or gullet, is an uniform deep rich scarlet, passing on the 

 sides through iridescent tints of rose-colour and lilac into delicate pale silvery rose. 

 The scaled opercle and the cheeks are iridescent rose and scarlet ; the suborbitaries, 

 the preopercle, the interopercle, the compartments of the lower jaw, and the hume- 



