548 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxv. 



Head 3|; depth If; D. XIV, 16; A. Ill, 17; P. I, 15; V. I, 5; 

 scales 4-32-21. Body oblong, deep and compressed, and covered with 

 striated, ctenoid scales. Head deep, the profile above ver}" steep and 

 convex; snout blunt and not produced; eye 3 in the head, greater 

 than the snout and equal to the interorbital space; nostrils small, close 

 together and directly in front of the e3'e; teeth slender, fine and in 

 brush-like series in each jaw; profile of body convex below from tip 

 of snout to the Aentrals; mouth small, the teeth produced, and the 

 maxillary below the posterior nostril; prcorbital with several small 

 denticles along its lower edge; preoperculum with its edge denticulate 

 and produced below into a sharp spine directed backward, and equal 

 to two-thirds the length of the ventral spine; lower margin of the gill- 

 opening above the preoperculur spine, denticulate; interorbital space 

 strongly convex; gill-opening large, the membrane narrowly joined to 

 theisthnuis; gill rakers short and not numerous; spinous dorsal highest 

 behind; soft dorsal higher behind the middle, Avith the angle rounded; 

 soft anal highest behind and with a rounded angle; pectoral equal to 

 ventral, the latter not reaching the anal; caudal convexh' rounded. 

 Lateral line high, arched and nearly concurrent with the dorsal out- 

 line. Caudal peduncle compressed, If in the pectoral. 



Color in alcohol blackish ])rown, except a large, white, vertical, 

 ol)long blotch on the sides above and ])ehind the shoulders, and the 

 lower margin of the spinous and soft anal, which are also Avhite. Total 

 length 4,\ inches. Here described from an example from Okinawa. 



This rare species is known to us from a fine specimen obtained at 

 Nafa, Riukiu Islands, l>y Yonekichi Koneyama. It is well figured b}^ 

 Bleeker. 



[tihiccf), a fiute-player, the allusion not explained.) 



Family V. ZANCLID.E. 



MOORISH IDOLS. 



Body oblong, nuich compressed and elevated, covered with minute 

 rough scales. Mouth small, with long, slender, ])rush-like teeth; no 

 teeth on the palate; bones of top of head thick and solid, developing 

 with age a conspicuous median horn on the forehead, wanting in the 

 young. Preopercle unarmed. Dorsal single, with 7 spines, the third 

 and succeeding spines prolonged into long filaments; interspinal bone 

 projecting before dorsal. Anal similar to soft dorsal, long, with its 

 anterior rays produced; a small antrorse spine before anal. Caudal 

 peduncle unarmed, the fin lunate; pectorals short; ventrals pointed. 

 Intestine long. Coracoid bones largely developed. Vertebra; reduced 

 in number, •.►+13 = 22. Air bladder large. Branchiostegals 4; pyloric 

 cjeca 14. One species, widely distributed about rocky islands of the 

 Pacific. 



