162 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Feb., 



and situated much nearer the front rim of the orbit than the tip of 

 the snout. Interorbital space rather broad and convex. 



Gill-opening oblique, and carried forward below the front rim of the 

 pupil. Gill-rakers short, and in moderate number. Pseudobranchiae 

 absent. Gill-filaments very long and numerous. 

 Peritoneum silvery. 



Scales small, finely ctenoid, and arranged in rather narrow vertical 

 series. The greater basal portions of the vertical fins covered with 

 small scales. Snout, interorbital space, occipital process, jaws and 

 lower surface of the head naked, otherwise covered with small scales. 

 No pectoral flap. Ventral connected at the base by two frena, the 

 outer scaled, and the inner joining the innermost ray with the belly. 

 Lateral line continuous, strongly arched anteriorly. 



Dorsal spines graduated from the first, which is very short, to the 

 last, which is many times its length. The anterior rays of the soft 

 dorsal and anal are very elongate and produced, those of the former 

 nearly as deep as the body. They become graduated posteriorly 

 to the last which are very short. The anal spines are similar to those 

 of the dorsal, only much shorter. Caudal small, and rather deep. 

 Pectoral short. Ventral very long, the outer rays three times the 

 length of the inner, or half the depth of the body. 



Color in alcohol dark brown, the soft dorsal and anal blackish. 

 Caudal blackish at base and sharply defined from the rest of the fin, 

 which is pale straw color. Pectoral pale brown. Ventral blackish. 



Length 3^ inches. 



Two examples. The larger, which is described above, agrees with 

 Bloch's figure perfectly in the broad vertical fins and the dark sharply 

 defined color on the base of the caudal. The other has the dorsal, 

 anal, and ventral very much more elongate, and the colors paler. These 

 fins are blackish, and the outer edge of the ventral is whitish. 



No traces are evident of the two vertical bands shown on the anterior 

 part of the body, like those in Ruppell's figure of Platax alhipundat us . 



BALISTIDiE. 

 2. Balistapus aculeatus (Linna?us). 



1758. [Balistes] aculeatus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., Ed. X, p. 328; India. 

 1866. Balistes aculeatus Giinther, Fishes of Zanzibar, p. 134; Zanzibar. 



[No descr.] 

 1870. Balistes aculeatus Giinther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., VIII, p. 223; Isle 



of France; Island of Johanna (Coll. Dr. Kirk); Zanzibar (Coll. Lieut.-Col. 



Playfair); West Coast of Africa; Moluccas; Amboyna (Coll. M. Frank); 



China Seas ; Pacific (Coll. M. Haslar) ; Feejee Islands; Micronesia (Coll. 



M. Wright) ; Seychelles (Coll. Prof. E. P. Wright) ; Mauritius. 

 1899. Balistes aculeatus Jatzow and Lenz, Abhand. Senck. Naturf. Gesel., 



XXI, p. .530; S. Juan de Nova: Zanzibar (Coll. Dr. Voeltzkow). [No descr.]. 



