PROMETHEUS ATLANTTCUS. 147 



the tail than elsewhere ; and it is not carinated or gelatinous in any part. It re- 

 sembles a chain with oblong links ; and is composed of a row of narrow, oblong 

 scales, each with a very wide tube, of nearly the width and length of the scale 

 itself. The upper edge of the line thus formed is more abrupt and prominent or 

 defined than the lower. 



Colour of the whole fish an uniform pale, bright, silvery-lead or platinum, 

 tinged more or less with lilac, and with a steely or violet iridescence towards the 

 back : externally black only in flecks here and there upon the body, and towards 

 the edges of the fins, top of the head, membranous edge of the opercle, the lips or 

 bony edges 'of the jaws, tip of the lower jaw or muzzle, and on the anterior spiny 

 dorsal fin. The inside of the opercles and branchial opening, mouth, gullet, tongue, 

 and whole internal lining of the abdominal cavity are a deep purplish or mul- 

 berry black. The teeth are a pale flesh-colour. The irides are silvery iri- 

 descent, spotted or clouded with dusky-brown. The second dorsal, the anal, 

 caudal, and pectoral fins are dusky, more or less inclining to black. 



This is the uniform appearance of P. Atlanticus in the market or on shore : 

 and therefore, when first present at its capture, I was quite unprepared to find 

 the whole fish of a rich coppery or cinnamon-brown, generally of a full dark tint, 

 but varying in different examples in intensity, and reflecting brilliant pink or 

 green metallic iridescence, especially about the throat beneath the pectoral fins. 

 The belly, usually, is scarcely paler than the rest. The iris is brown Avith golden 

 stains ; the pupil violet-black, not opaline. 



In the course of half an hour after death, all the brown disappears upon the 

 body, except a few dirty flecks or stains, which look as if they could be rubbed 

 off, but are permanent : leaving the whole fish, except the fins and parts about 

 the head or mouth, which retain their brown or blackish colour, like burnished 

 silver or block-tin, reflecting all over the most brilliant iridescent, chiefly violet 

 and azure, tints. 



On opening the abdomen of a female fish in fine condition, the \N\io\e peritoneum 

 is found to be purplish black. The stomach is an enormous, long, and simple sack, 

 extending the whole length of the abdominal cavity, and of a livid purplish colour. 

 The intestinal canal was adnate to it. Cceca eight or ten, finger-shaped, very 

 large but not long, pale ochre-yellow, adnate to the middle-sized and livid-pur- 

 plish liver. The air-l)ladder is large, very long and simple, oblongo-lanceolate, 

 pointed forwards and much attenuated backwards, or produced into a long, slender 

 point. In this example the abdomen was nearly filled with two enormous elong- 

 ated masses of distinctly formed but very small eggs or roe, of a pale yellow 

 colour. In other male individuals examined, there appeared no difference, except 

 the presence of the milt in place of these. 



The first of the tw^enty abdominal vertebrse is extremely short ; indeed a mere 

 ring : the ten last are furnished beneath with vertical apophyses, directed down- 

 wards in the middle. 



The individual figured measured nineteen inches and a half from the tip of the 

 lower jaw to that of the upper longer lobe of the caudal fin. 



This is a voracious fish, which chiefly feeds on other species of its race. 

 I have taken sometimes fishes five or six inches long out of the stomach of 

 a Coelho of two feet in length. 



The female fish, of which the anatomy is given above, was captured in 

 the month of August : and that month with the following is the proper 

 breeding season of the species. It was in a particularly plump condition 



