LOBOTES SURINAMENSIS. 161 



stout spine and five soft rays. The anal fin is long, with three large spines ; the 

 anterior is short, and all are slightly convex before, and compressed laterally, and 

 more or less received in a groove when the fin is closed ; it has twelve soft rays, 

 covered with scales, as well as the membrane that unites them ; the sixth, seventh, 

 eighth, and ninth rays are prolonged, as in the dorsal fin. The caudal is short 

 but strong, with seventeen large rays, Avhich soon subdivide, and are covered 

 with scales nearly to their extremity. 



The scales are large, sub-round, ciliated behind ; there are fifty-two in the length 

 and twenty-five in the elevation of the body. The supra-scapular is large and 

 serrated, as is also the humeral. The lateral line at first runs nearly parallel with 

 the arch of the back, though a little more convex in front, and a little more 

 depressed opposite the soft portion of the dorsal fin. 



Colour. This fish when first taken from the water is light silver-grey, but it 

 soon becomes darker, and almost black above ; the lower jaw and cheeks near the 

 eyes are strongly tinted with yellow, and occasional blotches of a similar tint are 

 seen along the back and shoulders ; the spinous portion of the dorsal fin is olive, 

 more or less clouded, and interspersed with yellowish shades, and dusky near 

 its border; the lower half of the soft portion is clouded olive, with mdistinct 

 shades of yellow ; its upper half and margin are nearly black ; the pectoral fin is 

 semi-transparent, with a slight yellow shade ; the ventral is white, with dusky 

 shades, and here and there yellow tints ; the anal is coloured like the dorsal ; and 

 so is the caudal, but the latter is darker and without yellow tints. 



Dimensions. The head is one fourth the entire length ; the greatest ele- 

 vation without the dorsal fin is equal to one head and a half ; total length, six- 

 teen inches. 



Splanchnology. The liver is large, and the central portion thin ; the left lobe is long and slender, 

 its anterior margin is sharp, with a deep fissure ; the right lobe is the shorter, with its anterior border 

 rounded. The gall-bladder is long, very narrow, and rests on the right lobe. The cystic duct is 



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