15 



Pagetodks. 



Th. 'jraytTahf, yelu adstriclus. 



Plate VIII., fig. 3, natural size. 



When the ships were in the high latitude of 77° 10' S., 

 and long. 1781^", a fish was thrown up by the spray in a 

 gale of wind, against the bows of the Terror, and frozen 

 there. It was carefully removed, for the purpose of pre- 

 servation, and a rough sketch was made of it by the sur- 

 geon, John Robertson, Esq., but before it could be put into 

 spirits, a cat carried it away from his cabin, and ate it. 

 The sketch is not sufficiently detaileH to show either the 

 number or nature of the gill and fin rays, or whether the 

 skin was scaly or not, so that even the order to which the 

 fish belongs is uncertain ; and we have introduced a copy 

 of the design, merely to preserve a memorial of what 

 appears to be a novel form, discovered under such peculiar 

 circumstances. The ground colour of the body is pale 

 blue ; much of the head, and the vertical bands are dark 

 neutral tint, and minute dark specks are scattered over the 

 body and caudal fin. The foUowiug measurements were 

 noted. 



Extreme length ei\ inches. 



Length of head to tip of gill-cover 2 „ 



„ mouth li ,, 



„ pectoral fin IJ „ 



Breadth of ditto, when expanded 1 „ 



Length of ventrals 2 „ 



Breadth of caudal fiu Yo n 



Diameter of body, nearly 1 „ 



„ small part of tail ^ „ 



fins. The fin membranes are not thick, and permit the 

 slender rays to be easily seen. 



Rays:— D. 3j— 1-2 ; A. 7 ; C. 9 ; P. 11 ;* V. 5. 



All the rays of the second dorsal and .anal arc jointed, 

 but the first nine of the former, and only the first one of 

 the latter, are simple, the others being forked. The rayed 

 part of the pectoral forms an angle with its supporting arm, 

 so that the whole length of the fin is only two-thirds of 

 the sum of the two parts, separately measured. The gill- 

 opening is situated in the axilla of the pectoral arm, on 

 its under side. The number and position of the filaments 

 may be easily made out from the figure, without a detailed 

 description. 



The colours of the specimen in spirits are reddish-white, 

 with bluish-black markings, edged and spotted with milk- 

 white. In their distribution on the body and tail, they are 

 not without resemblance to those of Cheironpcles marino- 

 ralun, brought by Lesson from the coast of New Guinea,t 

 and are still more like those of the Baudroie Geocjraphique, 

 of the Voya<je da Freyciiiet, plnnche 65, Jig. 3. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Length from the upper lip to extremity of caudal fin ... 2-82 inches. 



„ „ anus 1-42 „ 



„ „ edge of preoperculum 110 „ 



Height of the body at the ventrals 1-25 „ 



Thiclness of ditto at the pectorals 0'70 „ 



Length of the pectoral arm 060 „ 



„ „ rays 050 „ 



„ „ caudal fin 082 „ 



Hab. Fields of sea-weed in the Tropical Atlantic. 



Cheironectes pictus. Cuvier. Var. vittatus. 

 Plate IX., figs. 3, 4, natural size. 



A single specimen of this fish was obtained in the 

 Atlantic, on a field of Sargasso sea-weed, on the 4th of 

 August, 1843. It is in excellent preservation, and from 

 the rigidity of its expanded fins, and the stiffness of its 

 filaments, it was probably plunged, while still alive, into 

 strong spirits. This has enabled the artist to make a cor- 

 rect delineation of it, and on that account we publish the 

 figure, though rating the fish only as a variety of a well- 

 known species. 



The body is rather higher than that of pictus, as repre- 

 sented in plate 364 of the Histoire des Poissons, and the 

 filaments are broader, and much more numerous. It 

 agrees with the description of the Cheironectes leevigatus 

 of the same work, in the slenderness of the first free dorsal 

 ray, which has a small, spongy, globular tip, and in the 

 more continuous dark markings of the body, but Dr. 

 Mitchill's figure of Lophius yibbits,* which is referred by 

 M. Valenciennes to lanigatus, has more resemblance to 

 the pictus of the Histoire des Poissons, than to our fish. 



The skin o{ vittatus is smooth to the touch, and appears 

 polished to the naked eye, but under a lens of moderate 

 power it is seen to be granulated with soft, contiguous, 

 rounded eminences, which also exist on the bases of the 



* Phil. Ti-ans. of New York, 1 , pi. 6, f. 9, 



Cheironectes trisignatus. Richardson. 



Ch. Spec. Ch. hispidus, circumscriptione laterale ovato ; 

 fascia humerali, et fascia annulari caudte lacteis ; 

 pnnctus tribus, rotundis, nigrcscentibus in vtroque 

 latere ; pinna Cauda medio fasciatd,fenestratini punc- 

 tata. 



Radii:— D.3|— 13; A. 7 ; C. 9; P. 

 Plate IX., fig. 1. 



V. 5. 



This is a hispid Cheironectes, which I have not been 

 able to refer to any described species. The members of 

 this group have a strong likeness to each other, and many 

 of them have dark spots on the sides, or fins, but differ- 

 ently arranged from those of this fish, which has three on 

 each side : one on the base of the dorsal, near its middle ; 

 one immediately beneath, over the anus, and the third 

 directly above the pectoral arm. In the centre of these 

 three there is a milky blotch. There is also an irregular 

 white mottled band, which descends with a forward bend, 

 from the space between the second dorsal, and the third 

 anterior ray to the pectoral arm, which it includes. A 

 similar band encircles the stump of the tail, and includes 

 the posterior edges of the dorsal and anal. The ground 



* It is by an oversight that twelve rays are given to the pectoral iu 

 our figure. 



•)- Voyage de la Coquille. 



