1. MACRUBUS. 393 



not longer than the diameter of the eye, which is one-third of the 

 length of the head. 

 Sea of Madeira. 



a, h, c-d. Adult, half-grown, and yoving. Madeira. Presented by 



the Rev. R. T. Lowe and J. Y. Johnson, Esq. 

 e. Adult : skeleton. Presented by the Rev. R. T. Lowe. 



Description. — The length of the head equals the distance between 

 the first and twenty-eighth rays of the anal fin, its depth being more 

 than its width, and contained once and four-fifths in its length. The 

 projecting part of the snout is triangular, somewhat depressed, with 

 a ridge along the middle of its upper surface ; its lateral edge is con- 

 tinued into a ridge formed by the suborbital ring, one part of which 

 is joined to the angle of the praeoperculum as in the Scorpcenidcn and 

 CottidiB. Another ridge forms the upper margin of the orbit, is bi- 

 furcate anteriorly, to receive the nostrils into the fork, and extends 

 backwards to the upper part of the gill-opening. There is another 

 low ridge on each side of the crown. All these ridges leave spacious 

 muniferous cavities between them, and are covered, Kke the re- 

 mainder of the head, with hard, subimbricate spiny plates, the spines 

 not being larger than those of the scales of the body. The inter- 

 orbital space is very slightly concave, and its width equals the vertical 

 diameter of the eye. The nostrils are immediately before the eye, 

 very close together, the posterior being a wide ovate slit. 



The cleft of the mouth is much longer than broad, situated entirely 

 at the lower side of the head, the symphysis of the lower jaw being 

 in the same vertical with the front margin of the orbit. The upper 

 jaw is protractile in a vertical direction. Each jaw with a narrow 

 band of viUiform teeth ; lower jaw with a slender barbel, half as 

 long as the eye. 



The angle of the praeoperculum is produced backwards, rounded, 

 nearly in the same vertical as the angle of the operculum, which 

 points obliquely upwards. The edge between the angles of the 

 operculum and praeoperculum is emarginate. The gill-opening is of 

 moderate width, closed superiorly ; the gUl-membrane attached to the 

 isthmus. Six branchiostegals ; four giUs, a slit behind the fourth ; 

 pseudobranchia) none. 



The height of the body is more than one-half of the length of 

 the head ; the tail is compressed, tapering to a point, so that the 

 length of the head is nearly one-fifth of the total. The first dorsal 

 commences at a short distance from the occiput ; its distance from 

 the anterior nostril equals the length of the head ; its length is two- 

 fifths of the height of the second (longest) ray ; the first ray is quite 

 rudimentaiy. The distance betAveen the two dorsal fins is twice the 

 length of the base of the first, or the second dorsal commences in the 

 vertical from the twentieth scale of the lateral line. The second ray 

 of the first dorsal is smooth and rather feeble, its length being nearly 

 two-thirds of that of the head. Rays of the second dorsal very 

 feeble, simple, shorter than the barbel. The anal fin commences 

 immediately behind the vent, in the vertical from the twelfth scale 

 of the latei-al line ; the longest rays are in the middle of the fin, 



