BY WILLIAM MACLEAY, F.L.S. 415 



" The height of the body equals the length of the head and is 

 one-fifth of the total. The young spocimen has the body some- 

 what more elender. The least depth of the tail is two-fifths of 

 the length of the head. The lower profile of the head is rather 

 more convex than the upper ; the greatest depth of the head, 

 above the posterior margin of the operculum, is three quarters of 

 its length ; the interorbital space is slightly convex, and contained 

 twice and a third in the length of the head. The snout is broad, 

 moderately depressed, and longer than the eye ; lips thin ; the 

 maxillary is a little longer than the intermaxillary, and becomes 

 just visible behind the angle of the mouth ; the preorbital is not 

 emarginate and is minutely denticulated at its anterior edge and 

 at its extremity, which is obliquely truncated. The cleft of the 

 mouth is one-fourth broader than it is deep ; the margins of the 

 mandibular^ bones form an acute angle anteriorly ; the space at 

 the chin, between the mandibles and interopercles, is elongate- 

 lanceolate. Both lips are provided with a series of minute cilise. 

 There is a deep cavity in front of the vomer. The nostrils are 

 distant from each other, and the posterior is somewhat nearer to 

 the orbit than to the anterior. The eye is surrounded by a broad 

 adipose membrane, nearly entirely covering the iris. There are 

 three series of somewhat deciduous scales between the eye and 

 the prseopercular margin ; the angle of the praeoperculum is 

 rather produced posteriorly ; there are three pores on its inferior 

 margin and two on its posterior. The pectoral fin is inserted 

 somewhat above the middle of the body, and extends to the tenth 

 scale of the lateral line ; it is shorter than the head (the snout 

 not included); the root of the ventral is midway between the base of 

 the pectoral and dorsal. There are 22 or 24 scales between the 

 snout and the spinous dorsal. The origin of the latter corresponds 

 to the twelfth scale of the lateral line, and is exactly in the middle 

 between snout and base of the caudal ; the length of the first 

 spine is one half, or a little more than one half, of that of the 

 head. The distance between the origins of the two dorsal fins is 



