22. PELTORHAMPHTTS. 461 



1. Peltorhamphus nova zeelandise. 



B. 5. D. 92. A. 57. P. dextr. 11, sin. 7. V. dextr. 6, sin. 5. 

 L. lat. 78. 



Brownish -olive, marbled with darker. Two blackish blotches on 

 the lateral line. 



New Zealand. Norfolk Island. 



a. Eleven inches long. New Zealand. Presented by Sir J. Rich- 

 ardson. 

 ^fi 9^ h-lc. Half-grown and young. New Zealand. 

 I. Half-grown. Norfolk Island. Presented by Sir J. Bichardson. 



Description. — The height of the body is contained twice and a third 

 in the total length (Avithout caudal), the length of the head thrice 

 and a half. The anterior profile of the snout is subsemicircular, the 

 snout being much dilated, flat, sharp, produced downwards into a 

 curved hook-like appeudage, which is bent so as nearly to reach the 

 first ventral ray, and nearly entirely covers the right side of the cleft 

 of the mouth ; the extent of the snout is rather more than one-third 

 of the length of the head. The mouth is twisted towards the left side 

 and narrow ; only the jaws of this side are armed with a double series 

 of minute teeth. The eyes are situated on the same level, on the 

 middle of the depth of the head ; their distance from the snout equals 

 two or three of their horizontal diameters, that from the giU-opening 

 three or four. The interorbital space is scaly, and its width equals 

 the vertical diameter of the eye in adult specimens, but is less in 

 young ones. Pupil kidney- shaped. Nostrils before the interorbital 

 space small, the anterior with a small tube. The whole of the right 

 side of the head is scaly, whilst the greater portion of the left side is 

 naked ; a series of very small fringes rims from the left nostrils to- 

 wards the neck. Gill-openings veiy narrow, the gill-membranes 

 being broadly united below the throat ; giU-rakers small, but distinct. 

 Scales ctenoid, each scale ha\-ing ten or more prominent spines on its 

 margin ; the scales on the blind side have fewer spines. Lateral line 

 straight. Anal and dorsal rays naked, bifid. The dorsal fin com- 

 mences on the extremity of the hook of the snout and terminates at 

 a short distance from the caudal ; its longest rays are above the end 

 of the pectoral, and contained twice and two-thirds in the length 

 of the head ; its anterior rays are rather short, with their bifid tips 

 extending beyond the membrane. The anal commences vertically a 

 little before the pectoral, and is coterminal with the dorsal. The 

 length of the rounded caudal is nearly one-sixth of the totid. The 

 right pectoral is ver}- well developed, and has the second u])per ray 

 prolonged into a filament as long as the head ; the left pectoral is con- 

 siderably shorter. The right ventral is continuous -niith the anal fin, 

 and has its ra3's disposed in the same waj- as the anal ; its base occu- 

 pies the whole throat, and is two-thirds as long as the head. The 

 left ventral is very small, situated laterally and somewhat anteriorly 

 to the vent. Brownish -olive, marbled with darker and dotted -with 

 black ; two blackish blotches on the lateral line, one above the 



