154 PENTACEROS CAPENSIS. 



grayish brown ; the tail bordered with whitish. 

 The young are clouded with large irregular dark 

 spots, on a grayish white or reddish ground. The 

 flesh is white and well tasted. According to 

 Forster, it is also an inhabitant of the Pacific 

 Ocean. 



Next to this is placed another singular fish, 

 which we have represented in the vignette of the 

 title page which accompanies this volume. It is 

 the Pentaceros Capensis, a native of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, and one specimen only is known 

 in the collection of the Netherlands. According 

 to Cuvier, its resemblance to the genus Ostracion 

 of Linnaeus is considerable, having the triangular 

 form, and hard closely joined scales, and also the 

 horns or protuberances which are seen in these 

 fish ; the line of the back is arched and bending, 

 that of the lower parts nearly straight in the 

 centre, but curved before and behind. The head 

 and cheeks are strongly striated with rough 

 granulated rays. In the centre of the bones of 

 the nose, and on each side above the eyes, there is 

 a compressed plate which rises in the form of a 

 blunt horn ; behind the cranium there is a sort of 

 collar of seven plates. On the centre one, nearly 

 in the middle of the neck, rises a third small pro- 

 tuberance, while on the two outside plates, which 

 are analogous to the supra-scapulary bones, rises 

 another, making in whole five horn-like eminences. 



