HEMULON FULVO-MACULATUM. 157 



as to extend only half the length of the movith. The pre-opercle is very broad, 

 smooth, with its angle slightly rounded, and its ascending border as slightly in- 

 curved just above the angle. The opercle is short, with its posterior angle ob- 

 tuse, and has the sub-opercle intimately joined with it. The inter-opercle is semi- 

 circular, broad, with two facets above for the opercle and sub-opercle. The gUl- 

 openings are large ; there are seven branchial rays, with a loose fold of skin hang- 

 ing from them behind. 



The dorsal fin is single and long ; its spinous portion begins rather before the 

 end of the opercle, and has twelve spines received in a groove ; its anterior spine 

 is short, and the third is longest ; the soft portion is elevated, with its base in 

 a groove of scales ; it has sixteen rays, of which the eleventh, twelfth, and 

 thirteenth are longest. The pectoral is rather long and broad, though pointed 

 behind ; it begins near the opercle, ends at the vent, and has sixteen rays, with a 

 fold of skin in the axilla above. The ventral arises behind the root of the pecto- 

 ral, and does not extend as far back ; it has one spinous and five soft rays. The 

 anal is large, and has three spines placed in a groove, of which the anterior is 

 smallest, and thirteen soft rays, situated in a groove, as in the dorsal. The cau- 

 dal is large, crescentic, and has sixteen rays. 



The scales are thin, four-sided, with ten radiating striae, and a scalloped margin 

 in front ; round and finely ciliated behind. The lateral line follows nearly the 

 outline of the back to the posterior extremity of the dorsal fin, when it descends 

 to the median plane ; its scales are small, sub-round, ciliated behind, and with 

 their tube near the middle. 



Colour. See Specific Characters, 



Dimensions. The head is rather more than one fourth of the entire length of 

 the animal ; the greatest elevation of the body, without the dorsal fin, is equal to 

 one head and one fourth ; total length, eleven inches. 



