FISH. 87 
It may be mentioned that in this species, as in some others, the last spinous 
ray in the dorsal is entirely invested by the membrane, and does not attain to the 
margin, so that in counting, it may be very easily overlooked. 
In Mr. Darwin’s notes, it is stated that this species bites very severely, 
having driven its teeth through the finger of one of the officers in the ship’s 
company. Its two very long sharp canine teeth at the back of the lower jaw are 
well calculated to inflict such a wound. 
2. Satarias quapricornis. Cuv. et Val.? 
Salarias quadricornis, Cuz. et Val. Hist. des Poiss. tom. xi. p. 243. pl. 329. 
Mr. Darwin’s collection contains a species of Salarias so closely resembling 
the §. quadricornis of Cuvier and Valenciennes, that I dare not describe it as 
distinct. Yet it offers some slight differences as follows : 
The profile, instead of being merely vertical, presents a rounded and projecting front 
between the eyes, advancing further than the mouth (as in the S. gibbifrons, Cuv. et Val.) 
The filamentous appendages are similar, but the superciliary ones are shorter than the dia- 
meter of the eye: the palmated ones at the nostrils consist of six or seven bristles. The 
occipital crest is hardly so much elevated ; its height being not more than one-sixth or one- 
seventh the height of the head, and only one-third its own length. The height of the dorsal 
equals at least half the depth of the body ; the depth of the notch above the thirteenth spinous 
ray is rather more than half its height. The fin-ray formula is— 
De OTe sA. 2oe Cl 13; cel. Pala eV" 2: 
The colour, as it appears in spirits, is nearly of a uniform olivaceous brown, with scarce any 
indication of vertical bands; paler on the abdomen. There are four or five oblique narrow 
whitish lines on the dorsal, but not very distinct ; also two on the anal, more decided : these 
lines appear to have been bluish, and there are traces of the same colour about the head and 
gill-covers. 
In all other respects it accords exactly with the description in the ‘‘ Histoire 
des Poissons,” where it is added, in reference to colour, that this species is subject 
to much variation. Mr. Darwin’s specimen measures five inches two lines in 
length. The number attached to it has been lost, so that there is nothing to shew 
where it was taken. It is probably, however, from the Keeling Islands, as there 
is in the collection, from that locality, another specimen, which I have little doubt 
of being the female of the one above noticed. 
This second specimen wants the nuchal crest, as is stated to be the case in the female of 
S. quadricornis. It is not full sized, measuring only three inches four lines in length, which 
may account for the proportions being a little different from those of the adult. The depth is 
one-sixth of the entire length, or rather less. The filamentous appendages resemble those of 
the first specimen, but the nasal ones have rather fewer bristles. In the form of the head, 
