NOMENCLATURE AND MORPHOLOGY. 91 



in depth ; head of moderate size, narrow, destitnte of scales be- 

 tween the eyes, and upon the snout, which is short ; mouth ex- 

 tending beneath the eye; jaw large, truncated posteriorly, inter- 

 maxillary long and narrow ; teeth very small, numerous pointed, 

 curved and serrated in the manner of a card on the jaws, palate 

 and extremity of the vomer ; inferior ja,w hardly longer than the 

 superior jaw, mandible strong, enlarged, spoon-sliaped ; eve 

 small and round; iris white, brown and red; pupil small and 

 of a deep color; dorsal fin high, rounded behind, arquated 

 before, and very low at its junction with the soft part, the 

 spinous rays imbricated and reclined into the longitudinal cavity 

 of the back ; anal rounded, shorter than the soft part of the 

 dorsal, with three sj)inous rays anteriorly ; pectorals moderate, 

 rounded ; thoracics truncated, hardly longer than the pectorals, 

 distant from the anal, and armed with a strong spinous ray; 

 caudal slightly emarginate, lobes rounded with 17 principal 

 rays, including the lateral flat ones, beyond Avhich are 8 small 

 ones; scales rounded, not denticulated, sub-irregularly placed, 

 large on the sides, smaller on the back, small upon the back of 

 the neck, very small under the belly, throat and cheek, and a 

 little larger on the preoperculum and suboperculum ; there are 

 also very small ones between the rays of the anal and caudal 

 fins; general color brownish-olivaceous, deep and fuliginous 

 upon the back, lighter on the sides, the middle of the scajes 

 browned with a black margin ; anal fin greenish ; posterior jiart 

 of the dorsal and the caudal violaceous, abdomen and throat 

 bluish and violaceous, the 13, 14 and sometimes 15 bands with 

 which this- species is ornamented are a little deeper than the 

 ■general tint ; they are more pei'ceptible in the fresh state of 

 the fish, when but recently taken out of the water; the opercula 

 are also traversed with many olivaceous bands, the lateral line is 

 undulated oblique: the color changes in the dying fish, it is 

 then sometimes all blue or bluish, or entirely black, and the 

 transverse bands disappear. Length 18 or 20 inches. 



