116 SCORP.'ENID.E. 



it as a species : especially after the separation from Scorptrna by Cuvier, 

 of the genus Sebastes, in which Bowdich's erroneous observation, of the 

 Requeime "■ having no fleshy appendices to the head or dorsal (lateral ?) 

 line," might, even in the absence of all notice of its scaly head or cheeks, 

 have caused it to be placed. Failing, accordingly, to recognise it in 

 any of MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes^ descriptions of the species either 

 of Scorpcena or Sebastes, I some time ago proposed it as a new Se- 

 bastes, to which genus it belongs ; retaining the specific name applied 

 by Bowdich to it as a species of Scorpana, which denotes its dedication 

 to the memory of Herr Kuhl, a zealous naturalist, too early lost to 

 science. 



In general aspect and colouring the Requeime much resembles the 

 Carneiro. It is, however, a considerably smaller fish, rarely exceeding 

 a foot in length ; and is of a less grotesque appearance, a more shapely 

 form, with a more pointed muzzle, and a smaller head. The small yellow 

 spots upon the fins and body, and the stripes of the same colour about 

 the head, are also obvious characters. The paucity of membranous la- 

 ciniae, and the scaliness of the head, that is of tlie cheeks and the 

 opercles, serve no less for its scientific than for its popular discrimination. 



It will, however, be described best by continual comparison with the 

 Carneiro. 



Shape deeper in the middle, but more slender and pointed at both ends ; and 

 thus oval or elliptic, cutting off the caudal fin ; not oblong. Back higher, gibbous 

 arched and convex close behind the nape, like a hog's. Breast and belly straight, 

 not corpulent or prominent. Head long rather than large, the muzzle before the 

 eyes being considerably produced and pointed ; bony, and armed with spines and 

 ridges. Mouth and gape large, the latter reaching back nearly to the middle of 

 the eyes ; the lower jaw a little longer than the upper, which is strongly notched, 

 whilst the lower has a tubercle at the tip beneath. Teeth and tongue as in the 

 Carneiro. 



The greatest depth is behind the nape at the tip of the opercle, or in a line with 

 the base of the pectoral or ventral fins : it is contained three times, or in smaller in- 

 dividuals three times and a half in the lengtli. The greatest thickness is nearly 

 half the greatest depth : and the length of the head a little exceeds the whole of 

 the same. The diameter of the eyes is about one fifth the lengtli of the head. 

 They are larger than in the Carneiro, and approximate, with a rather plain and 

 shallow or flattened yet grooved hollow between them on the top of the head ; 

 but are not at all, as in the Carneiro, prominent above its profile. The interval 

 between them does not exceed their half diameter : but the muzzle extends before 

 them fully a diameter and half. 



The general disposition of the spines and ridges of the head is precisely as in the 

 Carneiro : but they are generally more straight and slender. The front suborbitary 

 has only two strong distinct conspicuous fiat spines or teeth, pointing obliquely 

 downwards, and lying over the maxillary ; the lower being very broad and large. 

 The suborbitary ridge or keel, runnhig below the eye, and ending in the upper- 

 most of the five preopercular spines, is more distinctly raised and aculeate 

 throughout. The marginal spines of the prcopercle are unequal ; the one below 



