CENTROPRISTES ATRARIUS. 43 



Description. The form of this fish is somewhat oblong, but when its capacious 

 mouth and large gill-openings are extended, it appears almost sub-triangular. The 

 head is very large, and more or less elevated between the eyes, with the snout full 

 and rounded. The eye is large and prominent ; the pupil is deep sea-blue, and 

 the iris a dusky grey, with an inner margin of bright yellow. The nostrils are 

 closely approximated, and on a line within the superior border of the orbit, though 

 on a plane rather below it ; the posterior is sub-round, the anterior and smaller is 

 round, and about half way between the orbit and snout. The mouth is very large ; 

 the lips are thin ; the upper jaw is protractile, the lower is rather the longer ; and 

 both are furnished with numerous irregular series of small, closely set, conical, 

 sharp-pointed, and recurved teeth, all nearly of the same size, except those of the 

 external row, which are larger, farther apart, and less pointed. The vomer has in 

 front a triangular group ; and the palate-bones have an oblong patch of similar 

 teeth, the latter being rather shorter and more scattered. The pharyngeal bones 

 are covered with teeth of similar form, but directed more backwards, and some few 

 along their inner margins are rather longer and more slender. 



. The pre-opercle is rounded at its angle, with its ascending border vertical, or 

 directed slightly backwards ; both angle and border are finely serrated, the serra- 

 tures being rather larger below. The bony opercle terminates in two flat, exposed 

 spines, the superior larger, the inferior very small, but the skin is continued be- 

 yond the superior for some little distance, and ends in an obtuse point. The 

 whole head is covered with scales, except the cheeks, snout, and the space between 

 the eyes ; those on the opercle are nearly as large as the scales of the body. The 

 gill-openings are exceedingly capacious ; there are seven branchial rays ; the supra- 

 scapular bone is rather large, and serrated behind. 



The body is short and thick ; the shoulders are much elevated, but descend 

 rapidly towards the tail. The dorsal fin begins above the root of the pectoral, and 

 ends about an inch before the caudal, though, when folded, the tips of the last 

 rays reach it; it has ten spines, the anterior very short, and the third longest, 

 and each has a small delicate filament near its tip ; there are eleven soft rays, the 



