162 PEECED-ffi. 



The ventralis is small, and supported by a spine half the length of 

 the fin. 



There are no prominent canine teeth, but there is a series of large 

 teeth in each jaw in front and on the side. 



The ground-colour in the dried specimens is brownish — perhaps 

 brownish red in life ; the head and body are covered all over with 

 roimd blackish spots with a bluish centre, each covering about six 

 scales. All the fins appear now of a uniform blackish-brown colour, 

 but there seem to have been similar spots on the pectoral. 



Length of the largest specimen 16 inches. 



11 . Plectropoma cinctum. (Plate XIII. fig. A.) 

 D. 1^. A. 4. L. lat. 100. 



15 y 



The height of the body is 3^ in the total length, and the length 

 of the head is one-third of the latter. Praeoperculiun strongly 

 serrated, with three large spinous teeth at the lower limb, the an- 

 terior of which is the strongest. Caudalis rather rounded. Reddish 

 brown, with six dark-brown cross-bands encircling the body and 

 tail ; sides of the head with two bands of the same colour from the 

 eye to the opercles ; fins black, and whitish- edged. 



a. Fine specimen. Norfolk Islands. From the Haslar Collection. 



Description. — The form of the body is oblong, similar to that of 

 the Perch ; its height is comprised 3i in the total length. The 

 head is rather elongate, its length being one-third of the total. 

 The snout is elongate, as in Mesoprion, twice the diameter of the 

 eye ; the upper surface of the head narrow, the distance between 

 the eyes smaller than their diameter ; the scales extend only to the 

 nostrils, — the whole snout, praeorbital, and upper maxiUarybone being 

 naked. The eye is rather small, only one-sixth of the length of the 

 head ; the nostrils, separated into a smaller round posterior open- 

 ing and into an oval anterior one, are situated in front of the upper 

 angle of the eye. The praeorbital is broad, even broader than the 

 hinder end of the maxillary bone, which reaches to below the centre 

 of the eye. The prseoperculum is provided with rather strong and 

 distant denticulations, increasing in size towards the angle, and with 

 three very strong spinous teeth at the lower limb, the anterior of 

 which is the strongest ; the angle of the praeoperculum is rounded ; 

 the sub- and interoperculum are entire. The operculum has three 

 spines, the upper of which is very remote from the others; the 

 middle is the longest, projecting immediately above the lower one. 

 Suprascapula conspicuously crenulated. 



The spinous portion of the clorsalis is much lower and longer than 

 the soft. The spines are strong: the second one-third longer than 

 the first, the third one-third longer than the second ; the fifth to 

 the eighth longest, the ninth to the fourteenth gradually becoming 

 shorter ; finally, the fifteenth a little longer than the preceding, and 

 apparently belonging to the soft portion ; this portion is nearly 



