106 ZOOLOGY OF THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE. 
the lips, naked; but the cheeks and opercular pieces covered with large scales, which form two 
rows on the cheeks. Opercle terminating behind in a rounded angle. Scales on the body 
very large; eight in the depth, and twenty-one or twenty-two in the length: the entire 
exposed portion of each scale scabrous with granulations, which are partially disposed in lines 
towards the free edges. No scales on the vertical fins. The lateral line occupies the second 
row of scales from the top, till it reaches a little beyond the end of the dorsal, where it becomes 
interrupted, recommencing in the fourth row, which at this point is the third: tubal pores in 
some places ramified, but the ramifications not very distinct. 
The dorsal commences above the posterior lobe of the opercle, and is of nearly uniform 
height throughout. The length of the rays in the soft portion, which is slightly higher than 
the spinous, is not quite one-third of the depth. The whole length of this fin is half the 
entire length, The anal answers to the last half of the dorsal, and terminates in the same line 
the three spines are slender, and the first very short. Caudal with the central portion slightly 
convex, but the three outer rays above and below prolonged into a point one-third the length 
of the whole fin; the lower point a little longer than the upper. Pectorals about one-fifth of 
the entire length, pointed, with the upper rays arcuate. Ventrals immediately beneath them, 
one-third shorter. 
Coriour.—* Fine verditer blue, with some yellow stripes about the head and fins.,—D.—The dried 
skin is nearly of a uniform brown, but the snout and cheeks are much varied with green: the 
jaws also are green. A bright green patch in front of the eye, immediately beneath which is 
a pale freenum, probably yellow in the recent state. Dorsal and anal green: the former shews 
some trace of a lighter narrow band running longitudinally below the upper edge of the fin; 
the latter exhibits a very distinct fascia running along the middle. Caudal pale green, with 
the upper and lower edges of a much deeper tint. Ventrals in like manner edged with green. 
Pectorais wholly dusky. 
Habitat, Keeling Island, Indian Ocean. 
In so extensive a genus as the present, and one in which so much general 
similarity prevails amongst the species, the task of determining whether any 
particular one has been described before is extremely difficult. I can only say that 
the species which I have here ventured to characterize as new has been carefully 
compared with the descriptions of all those noticed in the “‘ Histoire des Poissons,” 
and though there are several to which it is nearly allied, there is none to which it 
can be referred with certainty. It seems to approach nearest the S. variegatus, 
but that species is said to have the caudal square, by which I presume is meant 
that the upper and under rays are not prolonged into a point, as is the case in so 
many species of this genus, and in the one here described. 
This species was taken by Mr. Darwin at the Keeling Islands. 
2. Scarus GLopicers. Cuv. et Val. 
S. globiceps, Cuv. et Val. Hist. des Poiss. tom. xiv. p. 179. 
Form.—Oblong-oval, very much compressed throughout: the dorsal and ventral lines nearly of 
equal curvature. Greatest depth contained about three times and one-third in the entire 
