174 ARIUS OBESUS. 



Another fish, of which we have even still greater 

 douht of ranging in the present genus of Valen- 

 ciennes, we here provisionally name, from its form, 



Arius? OBESUS, Schomb. Drawings, No. 57- — 

 Our scanty notes mention the specimen to have 

 been, " nine inches in length, in girth seven inches 

 and three-quarters at the thickest parts. It is 

 very fat, and is found under trees which have 

 fallen into the river. The teeth are a series thickly 

 set in each jaw ; the intestines have no appendices ; 

 no food was found in the stomach. Rio Branco, 

 April." 



The drawing is coloured of a dull hluish black, 

 paler or slightly silvery beneath. The buckler is 

 large, and is represented as granulated, projecting 

 in a sharp angle on each side above the gill-open- 

 ings. The first spines of the dorsal and pectoral 

 fins, both in this fish and in the preceding, resemble 

 those of the truly mailed fishes, and seem capable 

 of being applied for similar purposes ; here they are 

 strong and toothed on both edges, and from the 

 back of the pectoral spine or beneath the gill- 

 openings arises another, pointing backwards, equally 

 rugged in appearance. The anal fin is more than 

 usually elongated. The cirrhi are six, but of only 

 moderate length, those on the lower jaw short. In 

 form it is allied to Aspredo, but varies in the pre- 

 sence of the second or adipose dorsal fin. 



