182 ELOPS SAURUS. 



Colour. The head is pale green above, and white with often a roseate tint at 

 the sides ; the body is palest blue above, or with a faint greenish tint, and silvery 

 at the sides and belly. The dorsal fin is semi-transparent, of light olive-colour, with 

 minute dark spots ; its three or four anterior rays are alone clouded and dusky ; 

 the pectoral is semi-transparent, white below, of a yellowish tint above, and with 

 minute dusky points ; the ventral is also white, with a pale yellow tint above, and 

 numerous minute dusky points ; the anal is white in front, and pale yellow be- 

 hind ; the caudal is light olive-brown, especially near its tip. 



Dimensions. The entire length, from the opercle to the tip of the caudal fin, is 

 equal to four heads and a quarter ; the greatest elevation without the dorsal fin is 

 rather more than two thirds of the head ; total length, thirty inches. 



Splanchnology. The peritoneum is very thin, delicate, and of a silvery colour. The liver is large, 

 dark reddish-brown, and very firm ; it is simple, or undivided into lobes, at least on its ventral 

 surface, though imperfect marks of separation may be seen on its dorsal ; it is situated mostly on 

 the left side, and does not extend beyond the anterior fourth of the abdomen ; there is, however, a 

 depression in front, which makes it appear slightly heart-shaped, and a small nipple-like process 

 extends from the right side above, towards the oesophagus. The gall-bladder is large, though 

 concealed by the right portion of the liver ; the bile is remarkably green. The stomach is long, 

 conical, broadest in front, and so slender behind its pyloric branch as to resemble a lumbrical 

 worm ; its muscular walls are thick, and its mucous membrane has numerous longitudinal folds, 

 some of which extend its whole length, even to the pointed extremity behind ; the pyloric portion 

 is short ; it departs in front of the middle of the stomach, and runs nearly to the diaphragm, where 

 it ends in the small intestine ; its walls are thicker and firmer than those of the body of the stomach, 

 though its mucous membrane has similar folds ; the pyloric valve is well marked. The small in- 

 testine runs nearly straight towards the vent ; its anterior portion is largest where it receives the 

 openings of the coecal appendages, which are numerous, slender, and collected together in a mass. 

 The rectum is short, but more capacious than the small intestine ; its mucous membrane is finely 

 reticulated, and the rectal valve is moderately developed. The testicles when empty are long and 

 thin ; they are placed on the air-bladder, and in contact with each other on the mesial line behind ; 

 in the female, the oviducts unite near the cloaca. The air-bladder is very long, as it extends not 

 only throughout the whole length of the cavity of the abdomen, bufr terminates in two small, con- 

 ical horns in front, on each side of the first dorsal vertebra, near the occipital bone ; its walls 

 are fibrous, silvery, and white ; it communicates with the stomach by a very short canal on its 

 dorsal aspect. 



