SERRANUS ERYTHROGASTER. 31 



The scales are small and regularly unguiform, rounded and ciliated behind, 

 nearly straight, but with a scalloped margin and eight radiating lines in front. 

 The lateral line is concurrent with the back and about the superior fourth of the 

 body ; its scale is pyriform, pointed behind ; its duct is nearly in the middle, and 

 begins very broad in front. 



Colour. The roof of the mouth and pharynx are bright salmon-colour, except 

 the pharyngeal bones, which are white ; the inner margin of the lower jaw is also 

 salmon-colour, and the tongue has the same tint, except at its tip, which is 

 white; the head and body above are reddish-brown, with irregular blotches of 

 palest ash-colour ; the belly is salmon-colour ; the soft dorsal, caudal, and anal fins 

 are bordered with blue, more or less marked. 



Dimensions. The length, from the spine of the opercle to the tip of the tail, is 

 equal nearly to three heads ; the greatest elevation, nearly to one head ; total 

 length, three feet. ■ 



Splanchnology. The small intestine is rather capacious, and is longer than the fish itself; it runs 

 at first nearly to the vent, where it makes a number of short convolutions, and is then reflected to 

 the pylorus, whence it returns to end in the rectum. The liver is of a dark colour, and small for the 

 size of the fish ; it consists of two lobes, united by a short transverse portion ; the left lobe is more 

 than twice as long as the right, and more than three times its bulk ; both have thin margins, and 

 both terminate pointedly behind. The peritoneum is exceedingly thick, firm, and satin-like, re- 

 sembling in structure the air-bladder of many fishes. The gall-bladder is but a long tube, extend- 

 ing behind the right lobe of the liver towards the vent ; it is only connected to the lobe by its ducts, 

 and empties into the intestine very near the pylorus. The stomach is very large, and extends three 

 fourths of the abdomen, and has exceedingly thick muscular walls. Its pyloric portion begins 

 about its posterior fifth, and is short. The spleen is short, small, and lies above the small intes- 

 tines. The rectum is more capacious than the small intestine, but has thinner walls, with minute 

 longitudinal folds ; the rectal valve is broad and circular. There are twenty-eight long and rather 

 stout coBcal appendages, nearly surrounding the intestine beyond the pylorus. The air-bladder is 

 large, conical, rather flattened, with its apex behind and base before ; it has exceedingly thick 

 walls, and on its inferior face is a vascular ganglion, and numerous vessels are seen on its superior. 

 The urinary bladder is very large. In the empty state, the testicles are long, slender, and have 

 their margins lobulated. 



