PHILIPPINE MACROUROID FISHES — GILBERT AND HUBBS. 449 



the margin of the scale. The scales become reduced in size and 

 armature on the belly, especially toward the isthmus. The scales 

 of the body appear to be more deciduous than in related species, but 

 their more frequent loss may be in part due to their greater 

 roughness. 



The nasal fossa and the under surface of the head are wholly 

 scaleless; elsewhere on the head the scales are strong, and bear spin- 

 ules which differ from those of the related Philippine species in 

 their greater strength, and differ from those of C. kishirwuyei of 

 Japan in the fact that they are not arranged in series radiating from 

 the center of the scale. The dorsoterminal plate of the snout is 

 not especially strengthened, and does not project beyond the ante- 

 rolateral margin of the snout; the length of the plate is Contained 

 5 to 6 (3.3 in smallest specimen) times in the postorbital; it is 

 armed by one median and two marginal pairs of series of spinules 

 (subject to some variation) ; the spinules of the plate, as on the 

 other ridge scales, are less numerous and less regularly arranged 

 in small specimens. The terminal plate is followed on each side 

 of the snout by a series of eight or nine scales, increasing in size 

 posteriorly, and covering the bony ridge formed by the ethmoid; 

 the spinules on these scales form irregularly radiating series ; a 

 short interspace then separates the ethmoid series from the follow- 

 ing preorbital series, which consists of 10 (to T) subquadrate scales, 

 small in front, but decidedly larger below the posterior nostril; 

 the spinules form series radiating upward and backward from the 

 anteroventral angle of each scale in the preorbital series; the two 

 following portions of the infraorbital ridge — namely, the subor- 

 bital and the preopercular, are covered by a double row of scales, 

 strongest below the posterior third of the orbit. The median supe- 

 rior rostral ridge bears 10 oblong scales, all of which, except the 

 small last one, are of subequal size.; the spinous carinae on these 

 scales diverge outward and backward from the front margin of 

 each scale. The supranarial ridge is arched upward and inward; 

 it is armed by small scales, which become larger posteriorly, where 

 the supranarial ridge meets two others: one, the supraorbital, ex- 

 tending backward; the other, the antorbital ridge, which bears a 

 series of three strong scales, extending along the front margin of the 

 orbit and the hind margin of the nasal fossa downward to opposite 

 the middle of the posterior nostril. 



The supraorbital series of scales forms the margin of the inter- 

 orbital area ; in small specimens all of the narrow scales of this series 

 are rough with spinules, while in the larger specimens most of them, 

 except at the two extremes of the ridge, retain spinules only on a 

 median keel. The postorbital ridge extends from the end of the 

 supraorbital ridge series to the upper angle of the gill-cleft ; it curves 



