23 

 10. Chelidopevca investigatoris, (Alcock). 



Centropristis investigatoris, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., September, 1890, p. 199 : Illustratio.ns of thi 

 Zoology of the Investigator, Fishes, pl. X. fig. 1. 



Chelidoperca investigatoris, Boalenger, Cat. Perciform Fishes, I. p. 305. 



B. 7. D. X. 10. A. III. 6. L. lat. 42. L. tr f . 



10 



Dorsal and ventral profiles quite symmetrical. 



Height of the body between 3^ and 3f , length of the head, from the tip of 



the lower jaw to the tip of the operculum about 2—, in the total, without 



caudal. 



Head inclined to depression in its anterior half, deep, broad, and inflated in 

 its branchial region, with the operculum prolonged ; scaly, except on the snout 

 and upper jaw. 



Snout depressed, rounded ; its tip formed by a prominent median knob on 

 the projecting lower jaw ; its extreme length (including the mandibular element) 

 is equal to the major diameter of the eye and is less than its breadth. 



Eyes in their long diameter 4f in the head-length ; the upper border of the 

 orbit enters the dorsal profile ; the breadth of the interorbital space is one-third 

 the length of the eye. Nostrils superior. 



Mouth wide, oblique ; jaws strong, the maxilla reaches the vertical through 

 the posterior border of the orbit, the mandible closes outside the maxilla ; teeth 

 in viUiform bands in the premaxilla and palatines and in a small patch on the 

 vomer ; small canines in the mandible and at the maxillary symphysis ; tono-ue 

 long and spathulate. 



Gill-opening very wide ; operculum with two flat spines ; preopercular 

 border rounded and serrated throughout ; sub- and interoperculum large ; pseudo- 

 branchi^ coarse ; gill-rakers tuberculate. 



Scales, except on the lateral line and in the row flanking the dorsal fin, 

 large; finely ctenoid, except on the operculum; eight series on the cheek. 

 Lateral line salient, with very small scales. 



One dorsal, with its spinous and soft portions of equal extent, the fourth 

 and fifth spines the greatest and one-fourth longer than the eye ; the rays 

 slightly increasing in length to the ninth, which is less than two-thirds of the 

 maximum body-height and shorter than the corresponding anal ray. Caudal 

 emarginate, with the upper lobe the longer, its basal half scaly ; its length is 

 about equal to that of the pectoral, which is rather longer than the postorbital 

 portion of the head. Ventrals subjugular, the second ray almost as long as the 

 pectoral fin. 



Pyloric cajca few. Air-bladder small. 



