SYNOPSIS OF THE FISHES OF MADEIRA. 7 



therefore called after the Honourable C. E. C. Norton, to whose able pencil I was first 

 indebted for a knowledge of the fish. Two other supposed individuals have since oc- 

 curred, of which, however, one was unfortunately neglected, and the other had been 

 too much injured by a blow, beating in the interparietal crest, to be fiilly satisfactory. 

 This last individual, taken November 22nd 1838, was apparently a male; but I could 

 not satisfy myself completely even on this point, and infer it only from my inability to 

 discover any trace of the ovaria. 



Coryphcena equisetis, L. 1, 447. — " Dourada," " D. femea," or " D. amarella." — C. 

 equisetis, Cuv. at Val., 9, 297, t. 267. 



This may at once be distinguished from the foregoing species by its unspotted body, 

 marked only by a few scattered, clear, but extremely minute black specks, very differ- 

 ent from the diffused, pale, dusky, larger spots of the preceding. The pectoral fins 

 are also very short, the dorsal fin with fewer rays (53-55), the number of vertebrae 

 greater (33), the form deeper and less elongated than even in the first species here re- 

 corded. It also is a smaller fish. Being our commonest species, I have seen numerous 

 examples, but none exceeding two feet in length. The average length is very uniformly 

 from twenty to twenty-two or twenty-three inches. 



This fish, which is the commonest of the " Dourados " of Madeira, differs from C. 

 equisetis, L., as described by MM. Cuv. and Val., under the name of C. equisetis, only 

 in the head being rather longer than high, instead of higher than long, in the dorsal fin 

 being lower in its highest part, and also lower before than at its hinder end ; and lastly 

 in the profile being oblique from the beginning, whilst in C equisetis, Cuv. and Val., 

 " il monte d'abord verticalement sur le tiers a peu pr^s de son contour." The first 

 three discrepancies might well be merely due to shghtly different modes of measure- 

 ment. The latter is less easily accountable ; for in this Maderan fish at least, of which 

 I am well acquainted with both sexes, I find nothing to confirm M. Dussumier's obser- 

 vation, that a greater height of the interparietal crest is characteristic of the male in 

 Coryphana. See Cuv. and Val. 12, Pref. p. vii. 



Asteroderma coryphcenoides (Bon.) ; Astrodermus coryphanoides, Cuv. et Val. IX. 353. 

 t. 270. — Diana semilunata, Risso, Hist. iii. 267./. 14. 



A single small example only has occurred. 



Pompilus Rondeletii, Will. 215, i. O. 1,/. 6. 



Centrolophus pompiluSjYasT. 1, 158. 



pompilus, Cuv. et Val. 9, 334, t. 269. 



morio (Lacep.) lb. 342. Rariss. 



Two examples have occurred during the writing of this paper ; the first was uniformly 

 blackish, without spots or marks, thus answering to Centrolophus Morio of Lacep^de : 

 the second individual was smaller, and was marked precisely as in MM. Cuvier and 

 Valenciennes' figure (t. 269.) of C. pompilus. 



I have no hesitation in uniting both these fishes, with their respective S}Tion}Tns, 



