266 PEUC'iDJi:. 



ascending in an o])liquc direction. There are, besides, the two usual 

 lateral ridges, moderately developed. The basal iiortion of the 

 skull is not globose or swollen. The jaw-bones are rather feeble ; 

 the maxHlary is styliform in its basal half, and widen'fe at the oppo- 

 site extremity, so that the posterior and anterior margins are equally 

 and shghtly concave. The articulary processes of the intennaxillary 

 bones arc shorter than the bones themselves, and are received in a 

 slight groove of the extremity of the occipital crest. The muciferous 

 channel of the lower jaw is little developed, like those of the other 

 parts of the skull. The prseorbital is falciform, and has no denticu- 

 lation whatever ; the suborbital arch is narrow, ■with an interior 

 ridge reaching into the orbit. The pra3opcrculiim is indistinctly 

 serrated at the angle only ; the posterior edge is nearly vertical, the 

 inferior and the angle shghtly rounded. The operculum has a sHght 

 ridge at the inner side, terminating in an obtuse point ; the sub- and 

 interoperculum are narrow and slightly curved. The coracoid, the 

 ulna, and the radius are remarkably broad, the pubic bones rather 

 narrow and very elongate. 



The teeth arc very small, and arranged in a single series in the 

 upper and lower jaws. The band of vomerine teeth is bent at an 

 obtuse angle, and narrow, Kke that of the palatine bones. 



There are ten abdominal and fourteen caudal vertebrae, the length 

 of the former portion of the vertebral column being to that of the 

 caudal as 1 : 1-6. The neural and hcemal spines are slender ; the 

 first interhffimal is attached to the hajmals of the eleventh and twelfth 

 vertebrce by a slender and styliform portion, and forms a broad semi- 

 circulai' plate, to which the anal spines arc joined. 



60. DULES*. 

 Dales, Cuv. Sr Veil. iii. p. 111. 

 Six branchiostogals. All the teeth viHiform, without canines ; 

 teeth on the palatine bones. One dorsal, ■nith ten spines, the anal 

 fin -svith three. Operculum with two or three points, praeoperculum 

 serrated. Scales moderate, minutely serrated ; chin not very pro- 

 minent ; eyes moderate. 



Seas between the Tropics, some species entering into the rivers. 



1. Dules auriga. 



Cuv. %■ Val. iii. p. 112. pi. 51 ; Dekay, New York Fauna, Fishes, p. 34. 

 pi. 19. f. 54 ; Jeiiyns, Zool. of the Beayle, Fishes, p. 16, 



D. i^. A. y. Vert. 10/14. 



The third dorsal spine very elongate, filiform, half the length of 



* 1. Dales vaiiicolensis, Cuv. \ Val. vii. p. 478; Dumfnif d' Ui-vilk, Voy. Pole 

 Slid, I'oiss. p. 42. pi. 3. f. 2 (the figures of species of I)ii/(S, quoted from this 

 work, do not appear to be very correctly executed with regard to their coloration). 



