54 ON BALISTES VETULA. 
specimens. They include the following : a narrow ring 
jiroimd the snout ; a streak behind this, from its upper 
portion, along each side of the face, toward the ventral 
spine, stop[)ing at the level of the lower edge of the pec- 
toral ; another stripe parallel with the last passing from the 
l)ase of the pectoral over the foreliead ; a narrow streak 
from the lower edge of the eyeball across the forehead, 
and faint indications of one or more of the radiating or- 
bital bands above this ; a band along the bases of the fin 
raj's of each of the tins ; n wide ]);m(l around the caudal 
pedicel, between which band and that at the bases of the 
caudnl ra3's thei'e is a single ver}' narrow streak ; and near 
each margin of each of the tins, but separated from it by 
a narrow edgins; of brown, there is a narrow band of the 
blue, that on the concave portion of the caudal fin being 
widest. Compared with Bloch's figure (of a smaller speci- 
men) it lacks the narrow streaks on the central portions of 
the tins, has but two bands around the caudal pedicel, in- 
stead of four or more, and the lower band of the face does 
not extend back to unite with that touching the base of the 
pectoral, the latter band being continued farther down and 
also extended up behind the shoulder. Only two of the 
lines radiating from the eye are to be seen. The faint 
oblique lines seen on the back of the figure are entirely 
obsolete. The mentioned figm'e gives a very misleading 
idea of the teeth and of the ventral fins. There are in the 
specimen but eight somewhat compressed or incisor-like 
teeth obliquely extended forward in each jaw ; the ante- 
rior pair are more pointed, and the others are notched so 
as to appear rather indistinctly bicuspid. The ventrals are 
peculiar ; in that they appear as a single fin. On dissect- 
ing them out it is found that they really are separate fins 
which from opposite sides of the body are brought down 
and api)lied to each other on the median ventral line, so 
