160 LOBOTES SURINAMENSIS. 



sub-round, and situated on a plane above the orbit, and behind its anterior border ; 

 the anterior is round, nearer the mesial line, and is vertical with the front of the 

 orbit. The mouth is of moderate size ; the lips are tolerably thick and fleshy, and 

 the upper is very protractile; the lower jaw projects considerably beyond the 

 upper, and both are armed with several series of villiform teeth, and with an ex- 

 ternal row of conical, pointed teeth of much larger size, and directed backwards ; 

 of these there are about thirty in the upper, and thirty-four in the lower jaw. 

 The vomer and palatine bones are smooth and unarmed. The tongue is large, 

 broad, thick, flat, fleshy, and tolerably free and rounded in front. There are six 

 branchial rays, the inferior of which is small. 



The pre-opercle is round at its angle, the ascending border nearly perpendicular, 

 and with serratures so strongly marked below as to resemble spines. The opercle 

 is rather large, and terminates posteriorly in two broad points, not readily seen in 

 the recent specimen, as they are concealed by a loose fold of skin. The inter- 

 opercle is broad, and covered with a row of eleven scales, which are not ciliated 

 behind. The snout and lips are smooth, but the head above the nostrils is covered 

 with small scales, and the opercle and pre-opercle with larger ones, those of the 

 former being largest of all, though less in size than the scales of the body. 



The dorsal fin is single, large and long; the anterior portion has twelve spines, 

 the first of which is short ; all are flattened at the sides, convex before and concave 

 behind ; and each has one.flftli of its latero-anterior border covered with a row of 

 scales, though the membrane that unites them is smooth ; these spines are all 

 partially received in a furrow. The posterior portion has sixteen rays, rather stout 

 at their roots, but they soon subdivide, and are partially covered with scales, as is 

 their connecting membrane ; of these rays, the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth 

 are so prolonged as to make the posterior extremity of the fin round. The 

 pectoral fin is small, short, rather broad, rounded behind, and extends to the poste- 

 rior third of the ventral ; it has fifteen rays that are covered with minute scales 

 for about one third of their length. The ventral arises a little behind the base of 

 the pectoral, terminates at the root of the ninth dorsal spine, and has one long, 



