JAPANESE TRIGGER-FISHES— JORDAN AND FOWLER. 



267 



• Head 3; depth 2i; D. I. 36; A. 27. Bod}' oblong-, compressed, and 

 deepest anteriorly; skin tine velvety to the touch. Head deeper than 

 long with the upper profile straight; snout not produced, blunt; eye 

 high, 3 in snout, 1 in interorbital space, and 4 in head; interorbital 

 space strongly convex; gill opening below the posterior part of the 

 eye, level with the mouth, and greater than the space between its upper 

 extremity and lower margin of eye; dorsal spine over the posterior 

 part of the eve, finely striated, the sides with small antrorse spines 

 ))ehind. and its origin nearer the origin of the soft dorsal than thi^ tip 

 of the snout; soft dorsal and anal with their anterior rays very high, 

 then rapidly diminishing in length till the last, which are very short, 

 the lobe thus produced very blunt; caudal strong, its median rays the 

 longest and forming a point, three of them ending in tilaments, so that 



Fir;. 2.— Stephanolepis oblongus. 



the upper and lower rays are the shortest; pectoral short, about equal 

 to the deep, compressed caudal peduncle; ventral spine movable. 



Color in alcohol l)rown marked with darker; a light streak from eye 

 over gill opening on to the sides; several dark bars across dorsal spine, 

 1 at its base in front, and 1 from one eye to the other; traces of several 

 dark bands across the throat; ventral region dark; 2 Idack spots on 

 the back at the base of the dorsal, and 2 similar spots on the abdomen 

 at the base of the anal; caudal })rownish, with 3 indistinct cross-bars; 

 membrane of spinous dorsal blackish; pectoral, ventral, and anal tins 

 mostly plain; traces of several brownish bars across the throat. Here 

 descril)ed from an example (with three caudal tilaments) 4^ inches long, 

 from Nagasaki. 



This species is easily distinguished by its oblong form, tilanientous 

 caudal and high soft dorsal in connection with the movable ventral 

 spine. It has been rarely taken a])out Nagasaki. We have a single 



