SCORF.ENA SCROFA. Ill 



The pectoral fins are extremely large, ear-shaped, or subparabolic, rounded at the 

 tips, strong and fleshy, with the margin scalloped. Their first ray is simple, but 

 not pungent : the eight next branched and barred as visual : the ten lowest forked 

 or simple, thick, and fleshy, and curiously barred with close-set rings or joints, 

 like a fibre of an OsclUatoria. None of the rays project beyond the web. 

 Their length, measured as usual from the upper axil or base of the first ray, 

 varies from one fourth to one fourth and a half of the whole length : but measured 

 from their lower axil, or base of the last ray, it is about one third and a half 

 of the same, or nearly corresponding with the greatest depth of the body. When 

 fully expanded, they are twice as high as broad, covering something more than 

 the whole depth of the side. Their lower rays advance considerably forwards 

 underneath the throat ; giving them their ear-like form ; and bringing their lower 

 axil considerably before their upper. Their tips reach to or beyond the middle 

 point of the whole length of the fish. 



The ventral fins are rather small, placed a little behind the lower axil of the 

 pectoral, on the most prominent part of the belly. They are but little shorter 

 than the pectoral fins, and yet their tips in general do not reach nearly so far 

 back. In shape they are suboval, often irregularly truncate. Their last ray is 

 connected to the body by a web. 



The dorsal fin begins forward on the nape, above the superscapulary spines, and 

 extends nearly to the root of the caudal fin ; its spiny portion fomiing two thirds 

 of its whole length. The bases of the two first spines are approximate ; of the 

 others remote : the three first spines increase rapidly in length ; the second being 

 considerably longer than the first, and the third longer than the second, and equal 

 to one half, or even to two thirds of the depth of the body below it. The follow- 

 ing decrease very gradually and regularly till the eleventh, which is the length of 

 the first, and considerably shorter than the twelfth or last. The web behind each 

 spine is deeply notched. The soft rayed portion is about twice as high as the 

 hinder end of the spiny part, and rounded behind. Its last ray is double as 

 usual, and webbed down to the back. 



The anal fin begins opposite the commencement of the soft part of the dorsal, 

 and con'esponds with the anterior half of the same. It is remarkably small, re- 

 sembling in size and shape the ventral fins ; but is more produced and pointed. 

 Its last ray is webbed to the body merely in the axil at its base behind : and a 

 considerable space, fully twice as great as behind the dorsal fin, intervenes between 

 it and the base of the caudal fin. Another peculiarity is the distance before it of 

 the vent ; which is one third or one fourth the distance from the base of its first 

 ray to the ventral fins, instead of being close before it as in most fishes. The 

 three spines are strong, appearing broader alternately on different sides of the fish, 

 owing to the sublateral attachment of the web ; the second being broadest on the 

 right side, and the third upon the left. The second and third spines are of nearly 

 equal length. 



Caudal fin simple, truncate, or rather rounded and fan-shaped, twice as long as 

 broad, or rather deep, at the base : but, when spread out, its depth at the extremity 

 equals its length ; which is between one fourth and one fifth of the whole length 

 of the fish. 



The whole head, cheeks, opercles, maxillaries, throat, breast, and belly even be- 

 hind the ventral fins, the fleshy base of the pectoral, and the whole of all the fins 

 are entirely naked or bare of scales. Those of the body are, however, large in 

 comparison with the other fishes of this tribe, which are its more immediate allies 

 (e. g. the Requeiyne, Boca negra, and Rocaz) ; and, as Artedi after Rondelet ob- 

 serves, have more resemblance to those of snakes than fishes. Their direction is 

 obliquely upwards, instead of as usual horizontal ; and though offering a slight re- 



