38 ON NEW OR INSUFFICIENTLY DESCRIBED FISHES 



length of body. Length of snout 2-80, diameter of eyer 

 9-00, length of caudal fin 2*25 in length of head. 



Head as deep as long ; cleft of mouth extending to 

 below the hinder border of the lower eye, its angle midway 

 between the tip of the snout and the margin of the opeicle 

 hps smooth ; rostral hook reaching well beyond the max- 

 illary symphysis. Lower nostril tubular, situated close 

 in front of the inferior border of the lower eye ; upper 

 nostril an open longitudinal slit between the eyes. Eyes 

 equal, the upper about half a diameter in advance of the 

 lower ; interocular region 1-75 in the eye-diameter. 



Scales of colored side ctenoid, those of the head and 

 along the bases of the vertical fins more strongly so than 

 elsewhere ; scales of blind side smooth ; postocular scales 

 not or scarcely smaller than those of the body. Two 

 lateral lines on each side, the lower straight, along the 

 middle of the body, forking in front of the caudal fin, along 

 which both branches extend ; the upper following the 

 curvature of the back almost to the base of the caudal on 

 the colored, not nearly so far on the blind side : both lines 

 extend forward on the head nearly to the end of the snout, 

 where they meet at a rounded angle, thence passing down- 

 ward to the level of the mouth, where it bends inward and 

 again divides, one branch being continued on to the rostral 

 hook, the other curving abruptly upward and ceasing in 

 front of the interorbital region : the two main lines are also 

 united by a transverse line above the opercle, and a short 

 distance beyond this brp.nch a second subsidiary branch 

 disconnects from the lower line and extends downward 

 to the upper angle of the preopercle, from whence it bends 

 abruptly backward to the border of the opercle, along the 

 outer edge of which it passes to within a short distance of 

 the ventral profile, where it recurves forward to the lower 

 limb of the preopercle, and from thence, forming a rectangle, 

 sweeps downward and forward to the lower lip. 



Dorsal fin originating on the snout in front of the 

 upper eye. Caudal fin pointed. Ventral higher than 

 long, not continuous with the anal. 



Blue-gray, shading into pale brown posteriorly ; oper- 

 cular region darkest ; edges of body above and below 

 yellowish. Dorsal, anal, and ventral fins pale blue tipped 

 with gray ; caudal pale brown. 



