CENTROPEISTES TRIFURCA. 49 



Colour. The head is of a bronzed colour above, and marked with cupreous 

 lines from the eye to the upper jaw and lip, which is of a coppery tint along its 

 inferior border ; the root of the tongue, the branchial arches, as well as the roof of 

 the mouth, are bright yellow ; the lower jaw is white ; the body above the lateral 

 line is gray, with a purple tint ; below the lateral line it is silvery ; the sides are 

 marked with six dusky-gray vertical bars, darkest near the back ; the membrane 

 uniting the spines of the dorsal fin is transparent in front, or shaded with olive 

 spots ; and behind, near the root of the three last spines, is an irregular black 

 spot ; the filaments of the spines are red ; the soft portion of the dorsal is transpar- 

 ent, with a row of cupreous spots near its base, and spots of similar colour are 

 disposed without regularity near its margin, which is also cupreous ; the pectoral 

 is transparent ; the ventral is white, tinted blue in its posterior third, and yellow 

 in its anterior part ; the lateral line is marked by a succession of oblong dark spots 

 arranged in pairs ; the anal is semi-transparent, with a broad yellow band passing 

 through its middle, above which it is white, and the margin is blue ; the tail is of 

 a pale bluish tint, more or less transparent, with many yellowish-orange spots. 



Dimensions. The length from the opercle to the root of the caudal fin is equal 

 to two heads ; the greatest elevation of the body is one sixth of a head ; total 

 length, twelve inches. 



Splanchnology. The liver is large and of a very pale colour ; it consists of two lobes, with a cen- 

 tral or transverse portion, so joined to the left lobe as to leave no mark of separation, and making 

 with it more than four fifths of the organ ; the right lobe is exceedingly small, and is separated from 

 the central part by a well-marked fissure ; both lobes send processes into the hypochondria, but that 

 of the right is very short. The gall-bladder is but a long, narrow tube, reaching nearly half the 

 length of the abdominal cavity ; the stomach is large, long, sub-cylindrical, though pointed behind, 

 and has thick walls ; its pyloric branch departs rather in front of its posterior third, is very short, 

 and has its pyloric contraction well marked. The air-bladder is very small, and has thin walls. 



Habits. The Centropristes trifurca, unlike the last-described animal, is never 

 found, so far as I know, in deep water, but is common in the harbour of Charleston ; 

 yet it is only seen in the summer months, and is never abundant ; parts of crusta- 

 ceous animals, as well as small fish, have been found in its stomach. 



7 



