110 EPHIPPUS FABER. 



reaches the second dorsal fin ; the seventh and eighth are very short ; the pos- 

 terior portion has one spine closely united to its first ray, which is very long, 

 and, as the rest gradually decrease in length, the posterior border of the fin 

 appears nearly vertical, a little rounded below, and fiilciform above ; there are 

 twenty-two rays. The pectoral is small, rounded behind, and placed above the 

 inferior fourth of the body ; it has seventeen rays, with an elongated, sub-tri- 

 angular fold in the axilla above. 



The ventral fin is very long ; it begins before the pectoral, and extends farther 

 back; it has one spinous and five soft rays, the anterior of which terminates in 

 a filament that reaches to the anal. The anal is very large, and like the posterior 

 dorsal in form ; it has three sjjines, the first short, the second very long and stout, 

 the third of equal length, but more slender, and eighteen soft rays. The dorsal, 

 anal, and caudal fins have their soft rays, as well as the membrane that unites 

 them, covered with scales for more than two thirds of their length. 



The scales are rather small, sub-orbicular, crenated at their root, and ciliated 

 behind ; there are about fifty in the longitudinal, and thirty-eight in the vertical 

 direction. The lateral line is placed above the upper third of the body, and 

 follows the arch of the back ; each scale in it has a slight elevation, caused by 

 its duct. 



Colour. The body is lightest silver-grey, marked with six dark, transverse 

 bars, constant in their position ; the first descends through the eye, the second 

 through the anterior part of the pectoral fin ; the third is incomplete ; the fourth 

 is broadest, and runs from the posterior border of the spinous portion of the 

 dorsal to the corresponding part of the anal fin ; the fifth runs from the middle 

 of the soft dorsal to the middle of the anal ; the sixth is found at the base of 

 the caudal fin. . 



Dimensions. The entii'e length, from the opercle to the tip of the caudal 

 fin, is rather more than three heads ; total length, nine inches. 



