40 RYPTICUS MACULATUS. 



Description. This fish is of a semi-oval form, compressed, very regularly 

 arched above, from the snout to the root of the caudal fin, and nearly straight be- 

 low ; it is rather thicker at the back than at the belly. The head is long, narrow, 

 not much elevated, especially between the eyes, and the snout is rounded. The 

 eye is very large, prominent, near the facial outline, with its inferior margin above 

 the median plane of the head ; it is about one diameter of the orbit from the snout, 

 and two diameters and a half from the posterior border of the bony opercle; 

 the iris is reddish-brown, with a greenish tint, and the pupil is dark. The nos- 

 trils are very small, round, and near the orbit. 



The mouth, though compressed, is large, and the broad posterior extremity of 

 the superior maxillary bone extends beyond the orbit. The lower jaw is longer 

 than the upper, and projects so far beyond it, when the mouth is shut, as to make 

 part of the facial outline ; both are armed with numerous crowded, villiform teeth. 

 The vomer is furnished with a large, sub-triangular group ; and the palate-bones 

 have each a large, slender patch of similar teeth, and the pharyngeal bones are 

 armed with teeth of the same form. The tongue is rather long, narrow, smooth, and 

 very free. The pre-opercle is rounded both behind and below, and is furnished 

 with two stout spines near the superior part of its ascending border. The opercle 

 is sub-quadrilateral, with three spines behind, of which the central is longest, and 

 from them is extended a triangular fold of skin. The sub-opercle is quadrilateral, 

 though rather rounded behind. The inter-opercle is semi-lunar. The gill-open- 

 ings are large ; there are seven branchial rays. 



The dorsal fin is single, entire, and very long, as it begins nearly on a line ver- 

 tical with the anterior fourth of the pectoral, and extends almost to the root of the 

 caudal ; it has two short spines, that are so far removed from its soft portion as to 

 represent an anterior dorsal, and it thus difi"ers entirely from the Rt/ptkus sapona- 

 ceus of Cuvier and Valenciennes ; it has twenty-five soft rays, mostly covered with 

 skin. The pectoral is large, broad, and rounded behind; it begins at the soft 

 appendix of the opercle, and has fifteen rays. The ventrals are very small, near 

 together, and begin rather before the pectorals, but are only about half as long ; 



