95 



length of head one inch and seven tenths, being a trifle less than 

 one third the total length. Form elongated, much compressed. 



Scales very small, covering all parts of the fish except the fins, 

 the throat, and the space anterior to the eyes. 



Spines of the head, not largely developed. The preoperculum 

 has about five, distinct, flat, sharp ; the largest about a line in 

 length. The operculum has two, distinct but small ; the mem- 

 branous part projects slightly beyond them. The suborbital, on 

 its anterior inferior border has three or four, quite small. The 

 other parts of the head have none, except that a slender incon- 

 spicuous ridge along the border of each parietal bone is free at 

 its tip. A very small spine at the summit of the humeral cinc- 

 ture. 



, The loioer jaw is longer than the upper, and projects beyond 

 it in such a manner that when the mouth is closed it prolongs the 

 line of the dorsal aspect of the head. The line of closure of the 

 mouth is very oblique upwards; the gape large, so that the point 

 of the maxillary lies beyond the middle of the eye. 



Teeth fine, crowded, and even, in the lower jaw, on the inter- 

 maxillaries, the vomer, the palatine bones, and the pharyngeals; 

 those on each superior pharyngeal are in three patches. 



Lateral line following nearly the curve of the back. 



The spinous part of the dorsal^ arising above the opercular 

 angle, is an inch and a half in length ; the rays increase in height 

 to the fourth, which measures eleven twentieths of an inch, as do 

 the two succeeding, and thence the height decreases ; the last 

 ray seems to constitute rather a part of the soft dorsal, it is 

 higher than the one preceding. The soft portion of the dorsal is 

 an inch in length, half an inch in height; height diminishing 

 posteriorly. 



Anal about coterminal with the dorsal, rounded, six tenths of 

 an inch in length ; height equal to the length. 



Pectorals rounded, one fourth of an inch in length, nine tenths 

 in height, destitute of any thickened membrane, the four lower 

 rays simple. 



Ventrals even with the pectorals, three fourths of an inch in 

 height. 



Caudal somewhat concave, three fourths of an inch in height. 



