22 FISHES FROM BRAZIL 



The angle of the mouth is under the posterior edge of the eye. The snout 

 is contained 3 times in the length of the head, and is equal in length to 

 the longest anal rays. The anal has 152 rays, and its posterior end is dis- 

 tant from the caudal a distance equal to the length of the caudal. 



The head is slate-color and darker than the rest of the body. On its 

 upper surface is a white, rectangular, longitudinal spot, and from it a thin, 

 light, broken line runs posteriorly along the back. An abrupt white band 

 crosses the body above the posterior part of the anal fin, involving the latter, 

 and a second one crosses the base of the caudal fin and caudal peduncle. 

 The tip of the caudal fin is white. The fins are otherwise jet black. 



68. Sternarchella sima Starks, new species. 

 Plate 4. 



The ventral outline of the head and body is more strongly curved than 

 the dorsal. The greatest depth of the body is 7 in the length. The head 

 is small, with its dorsal contour abruptly rounded at the snout, and its 

 ventral contour slightly and evenly curved to the tip of the mandible; its 

 length is contained from 8 to 8^ times in the length of the body. The 

 mouth is very small ; its gape is more transverse than lateral, nearly straight 

 in front and abruptly curved down at the end of the maxillary on the side. 

 The maxillary reaches to under the very inconspicuous posterior nostril. 

 Small, sharp, movable teeth are present in several series on both jaws. The 

 eyes are small and the thick skin that covers them is continuous with the 

 side of the head, so that their extent is difficult to appreciate. Their diameter 

 is contained 8 times in the length of the head, 2 times in the snout, and 

 2 times in the interorbital space. At the isthmus is a deep longitudinal 

 groove, at the middle of which the vent is placed a little nearer to a vertical 

 line from the preopercle than one from the eye. 



The scales are rather large and thin. There are from 75 to 80 tubes 

 in the lateral line. Over an area extending above the base of the anal rays, 

 and about equal in width to the length of the rays (the area of the inter- 

 haemal rays) the scales are abruptly smaller. There are 8 or 9 scales 

 between the lateral line and the scaleless area of the back at the widest part 

 of the body. The anal begins below the base of the pectoral or very 

 slightly in front of it, and ends a distance from the caudal base nearly 

 equal to the length of the head. It contains 193 rays, the longest of which 

 are a trifle under half of the length of the head. The pectoral is contained 

 iy3 in the head, and has 14 or 15 rays. The length of the caudal is equal 

 to the diameter of the eye. 



