22 BERYCID3J. 



violet-brownish ci'oss-bahd ; caudal fin above and beneath white- 

 edged, and each lobe with a violet-brownish longitudinal streak, 

 lied Sea ; AmbojTia. 



a. Half-grown : stuffed. Eed Sea. From the Frankfort Museum. 

 I. Adult. India. From Mr. Frank's Collection. 

 c, d. Adult. India. 



8. Myripristia adustus. 

 Bleeker, Amboina, iii. p. 18. 



^- 10 I fs- ^- TT^Ii- ^- l*^*- ^^^0- ^^^■*- 1V15. 



The height of the body is 3^ in the total leng-th, the length of tne 

 head 3^ ; the interspace between the eyes is one -fourth of the latter. 

 The upper maxillary bone reaches to behind the middle of the eye ; 

 operculum wdth a short feeble spine. Pectoral reaching a little 

 beyond the ventral to the level of the tenth scale of the lateral line. 

 The third anal spine strongei', but rather shorter, than the fourth. 

 Above reddish-A-iolct, scales with a \iolet edge ; gLLl-oiK?ning and 

 base of the pectoral black ; the spinous dorsiil violet ; the other 

 vertical fins rose-coloured, with broad black tips. 



Sea of Amboyna. 

 a, b, c, d. Adult. Amboyna. From Mr. Frank's Collection. 

 e, /. Adult. Sine patria. From Mr. Frank's Collection, 

 fj. Half-grown. Amboyna. From Mr. Frank's Collection. 



Skeleton. — The bones forming the roof of the skull are so closely 

 attached to one another and show such continuous ridges, that it 

 is nearly impossible to point out the sutures between the single 

 bones without separating them altogether. The supraoccipital crest 

 is limited to the posterior part, without extending on its upper 

 STirface. There are two principal ridges longitudinally running 

 along the middle of the interspace between the eyeo. Lea\-ing pos- 

 teriorly a narroAV cavity between them, they are close side by side 

 anteriorly, and then diverge lo form a short triangular groove for 

 the posterior processes of the intermaxillary bones. Between each 

 of these ridges and the orbit is an ^ongate cavity, tapering at both 

 ends ; the longer posterior part belongs to the principal frontal 

 bone, the shorter anterior to the turbinal; both the turbinal bones 

 receive between them the short groove for the processes of the 

 intermaxillaries ; from about the middle of the upper part of the 

 orbit arises another ridge, similar to those mentioned, and ninning 

 backwards soon radiates into branches, which again bifurcate and 

 form the fan-like expansion characteristic of the species of Myri- 

 pristis and Holocentrtmi. 



The maxillary bone is styliform in its inner half, then suddenly 

 widens into a broad plate, with an acute angle beliind and a rounded 

 one in front ; the latter is furnished with several granular pro- 

 minences ; the su])plementiU7 bone is oblong, about four times as 

 long as broad, and has a styliform upper process. Tlie inter- 

 maxillaries are sei)aratcd from one another by a small notch, thcv 



