120 



KN'DEAVOUR SCIKNTIFIC RESULTS. 



pores, the openings being covered by membrane. Interorbital 

 6pace bounded on either side by the supraorbital bones ; the 

 median portion is an oblong, scaly space, which receives the 

 posterior processes of the premaxillaries when the mouth is closed. 

 Nostrils close together, the posterior the larger, and placed 

 directly in front of the eye; they are protected above by a 

 granular bone. Eye large, about once and a quarter as wide as 

 the interorbital space. Cheeks, interorbital space and snout 

 covered with scales with upstanding denticulated margins ; 

 lower half of operculum similarly scaly. Lips of moderate 

 breadth and fleshy. Maxillary very oblique when the mouth is 



Fig. 8. Neorifttux rhomboid a lift, var. gibbo.ius. 



closed ; its hinder margin more or less excavate, and the lower 

 angle produced. Teeth minute and conical, in one or two rows 

 in front of the jaws and in one on the sides ; maxillary 

 symphysis toothless. Similar teeth form a series across the 

 head of the vomer. 



Scales of the sides flat and imbricate, with their margins 

 strongly ctenoid. On the nape and lower part of the abdomen 

 their edges are turned outwards and are strongly spinate. 

 Lateral line more or less arched anteriorly, but descending to the 



