GREATER WEEVER. 47 



The general form is long, narrow, and compressed, the 

 example described measuring ten inches and three fourths in 

 length, with a breadth (where widest) of one inch and five 

 eighths. The head short, compressed, flat between the eyes, 

 and rough on the summit; eyes on the fore part, high, with 

 some short spines above them; nostrils single, near the eye, 

 with a firm margin, terminated above and below by a small 

 spine, the uppermost directed upward, the lower near the 

 mouth, and inclining downward. Angle of the mouth depressed, 

 under jaw projecting, numerous teeth in both jaws; tongue 

 large. The hindmost gill-cover lengthened posteriorly, and 

 furnished with a long and sharp spine, which is directed 

 backward. The lateral line rises a little at first, passes along 

 nearer the back, and sinks suddenly near the tail: two plates 

 with rough edges at its origin. The belly short, the vent 

 being less than five inches from the front. Scales on the 

 gill-covers and body. Dorsal fins seated in a furrow; first 

 dorsal short, beginning rather before the root of the pectoral, 

 the second beginning close to the first, and reaching within 

 a short distance of the tail. Pectorals low, wide, near the 

 ventrals; the last-named fins close together, under the throat; 

 tail a little incurved. Colour yellowish brown on the back, 

 light purple below the eye; on the gill-covers yellow, with 

 sometimes light blue stripes. The body covered with narrov^, 

 regular, intermingled brown and yellow lines, which run 

 obliquely from the back below, and become lighter before 

 they disappear. The fin rays generally extciid beyond the 

 membrane; the first dorsal black or deep brown, the second 

 and the tail sometimes striped or mottled with yellow and 

 brown. 



Fin rays — first dorsal six, second dorsal thirty-one, pectoral 

 sixteen, ventral five, and caudal thirty-one. A Weever was 

 obtained from a trawl, with a remarkable deficiency in the 

 second dorsal fin, which failed at about the third posterior 

 portion of its length for the space of an inch and a half. 

 There was no mark of a fin or its rays at that part, and the 

 intermediate bones, which stand between the fin rays and the 

 spinous processes of the vertebra?, were wanting; so that the 

 fish in fact possessed three dorsal fins. 



