HY J. DOUfiLAS Of.ILBY. 321 



of the eye. Nostrils simple, lateral, situated at the opposite ends 

 of a shallow fossa. Lower jaw the longer; cleft of mouth wide 

 and moderately oblique; the maxilla truncated and expanded 

 posteriori}'', extending backwards beyond the hinder margin of 

 the eye; upper profile of head flat. Preorbital armed with 

 three strong spines; preopercle finely denticulated on both limbs, 

 and with a strong, acute, elongate, curved spine at the angle; 

 three short stout spines on the subopercle; opercle and interopercle 

 with prominent ribs, each of which terminates in a free flexible 

 point; a spinose ridge runs from the front of the snout to the 

 postero-superior angle of the orbit, where it is subdivided, a short 

 branch passing downwards along the upper portion of the hinder 

 margin of the eye, Avhile the main l^rancli is continued along the 

 occiput; beneath the termination of the latter a similar ridge 

 commences, and traversing the temporal region ends in a pair of 

 strong post-temporal spines; a short sj^inose ridge on the occij^ut 

 below the middle of the occipital ridge: a short simple ridge j^asses 

 outwards from the centre of the posterior margin of the eye. 

 Jaws with a single series of slender cordiform teeth, those in 

 front being strongly hooked; two or three smaller teeth between 

 each pair of elongate ones; three strong and a few small teeth on 

 either side of the head of the vomer; two short parallel patches, 

 composed of three series each, of stout recurved teeth behind the 

 base of the tongue, the outer row the strongest; all the bones of 

 the hyoid arch dentiferous. Dorsal fins separated by a consider- 

 able interspace; the spines weak and flexible, the second the 

 highest, two-fifths of the length of the head, and two-thirds of the 

 anterior and highest rays: the anal commences beneath the third 

 dorsal ray, and is similar to but not so high as the soft dorsal 

 fin: ventral elongate and pointed, the fourth ray the longest, 

 reaching to the vent, its length three-fourths of that of the head : 

 pectoral small, about half the length of the ventral, its base 

 situated at a considerable distance behind that of the ventral: 

 caudal emarginate, small, its length six and a half in the total 

 length. Scales of the head simple, circular, non-imbricate, each 

 furnished with a central pore; head entirely scaly, with the excep- 



