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The flat anterior ends of the laclirymals form the so-called preorbital processes. These processes 

 are nearly as long as the snout of the fish, and their edges are finely serrated, each little tooth being 

 the end of a vein on the thin edge of the process, this vein appearing both on the dorsal and ventral 

 surfaces of the process as a slight and finely granulated ridge. At the base of the process two ridges 

 begin. The dorsal one is much the stronger and extends backward, across the cheek bones, as a longi- 

 tudinal, horizontally-projecting shelf, to the hind edge of the preopercular, where it terminates in 

 a tall, thin, obtuse and finely serrated hind end. The anterior half of the ridge bears two groups of 

 small point-like spines; a short anterior group, on the second bone of the infraorbital series, and a 

 long posterior one, on the third bone of the series. Dorsal to the ridge the outer surface of the cuirass 

 of the cheek inclines dorso-mesially, while, ventral to it, it inclines ventrally or ventro-naesially, the 

 ridge making a prominent angle on the outer surface of the cuirass. The ventral ridge is much less 

 iniportant than the dorsal one, and lies near the ventral edge of the cheek bones. It, also, extends 

 to the hind edge of the preopercular, but it is always interrupted, as, or just before, it reaches the 

 anterior edge of that bone, and there usually breaks up into several slightly diverging ridges, all of 

 which are finely serrated their füll length. 



On the anterior quarter line, approximately, of the dorsal surface of the snout, at about the 

 middle of the length of the nasal bone, there is, on either side, either one stout vertical spine, or two 

 or more smaller spines lying one directly behind the other. On the posterior quarter line of the snout, 

 or even still nearer its base, there is, near the lateral edge of its dorsal surface, on the ectethmoid 

 bone, a group of from one to three similar but smaller spines. Postero -lateral to these latter spines, 

 there are, also on the ectethmoid, two or three short diverging lines of small tooth-like spines. The 

 dorso-mesial one of these lines is continuous with the dorsal edge of the orbit, that edge being 

 serrated. Slightly anterior to the transverse line of the ectethmoid spines, there is, on the dorsal 

 surface of the mesethmoid, a single large median spine. 



Starting from the group of ectethmoid spines, on either side, a ridge runs backward to the 

 hind edge of the dorsal surface of the skull, traversing the ectethmoid, frontal and parieto-extra- 

 scapular bones. The ridges of opposite sides converge slightly, at first, in a gentle curve, and then 

 run backward in slightly curved and slightly diverging lines to the hind end of the interorbital region, 

 when they again converge slightly to the hind edge of the skull. As they pass between the orbits 

 each ridge lies slightly mesial to the dorsal edge of the corresponding orbit. Each ridge bears a variable 

 number of spines, the spines that lie on the ectethmoid part of the ridge being small and sharply 

 pointed, while the others, on the frontal and parieto-extrascapular portions, are usually serratures 

 that increase gradually in size toward the hind end of the ridge. The large posterior serrature lies 

 on the parieto-extrascapular, extending the füll length of that bone and ending almost directly 

 dorsal to the summit of the epiotic. The next anterior serrature is slightly smaller than the posterior 

 one, rises from the hind edge of the frontal, and extends across that part of the frontal that lies 

 posterior to the frontal commissure of the latero-sensory canals. The next anterior serrature is still 

 smaller, is sometimes double, and lies opposite and slightly posterior to the lateral end of the frontal 

 commissure. Beneath the base of this last serrature the sixth tube of the supraorbital canal passes, 

 on its way to join and anastomose with the main infraorbital canal at the edge of the frontal. The 

 fifth tube of the supraorbital canal has been suppressed, as in Scorpaena, the seventh or terminal 

 tube opening on the outer surface of the frontal slightly mesial to the point of this same serrature. 

 This third serrature from the hind end of the line thus has the position, relative to the supraorbital 



ZooIogi;a. Heft 57. Jg 



