284 Zoological Society : — 



the skin, which is faintly reticulated with oblique grooves or wrinkles, 

 and has a steel-grey colour with a silvery lustre. The height of the 

 hody, compared with the total length, is as 1 to 9| ; whilst the length 

 of the head, compared with the total length, is as 1 to 4-JL The 

 hlack compressed head is flattened ahove, and is concave between 

 the eyes, where there are four low ridges, the inner pair of which 

 enclose an elongated diamond-shaped space. The lower jaw is longer 

 than the upper, and each is armed with a single series of small del- 

 toid distant teeth. Those of the upper jaw are inserted in the pre- 

 maxillary. In front there are seven longer teeth, which are conieo- 

 compressed, and curve slightly backwards ; two of them at each side 

 stand within the outer row of teeth. On the palatine bones there is 

 a single row of minute teeth; whilst the vomer is unarmed. The 

 tongue is also without teeth, and is black like the rest of the month 

 and the inside of the gill-covers. A membrane with a tongue-like 

 lobe stretches across the palate. 



The diameter of the round lateral eye is contained in the head 

 about five times, and is distant from the muzzle 1| of its diameter. 

 Near the angle of the preopercle are three very small flat teeth. The 

 opercle terminates in two obtuse projections separated by a notch. 



The first dorsal fin commences a little in front of the root of the 

 pectoral fin. Its height is rather more than half the height of the 

 body ; and its length is less than half that of the fish. It rises out 

 of a groove, and is supported by twenty-one slender spines, which 

 are not tuberculated. The second dorsal fin commences shortly behind 

 the termination of the first, to which it is not quite ecpial in point of 

 height, and it is less than half as long. It is supported by nineteen 

 rays, of which the first one or two are short ; and it is followed by 

 two longish finlets. The pectoral fin is inserted under the angle of 

 the opercle ; it contains thirteen rays, and equals in length the second 

 dorsal fin. The pair of spines representing the ventral fins are in- 

 serted close together under the hinder part of the roots of tbe pec- 

 toral fins. Their length is about a fourth of the height of the body; 

 and, being longitudinally grooved, each appears to consist of two or 

 three spines fused together. The vent is a little behind the middle 

 of the fish. Behind the vent there is a flat dagger-shaped spine, 

 which is longitudinally grooved. Its length is less than half the 

 greatest height of the body ; but it is rather longer than the ventral 

 spines. The anal fin commences about the length of the spine behind 

 it, and is opposite to, but rather shorter than, the second dorsal fin. 

 It contains eighteen rays, and is followed by two finlets, the second 

 of which is elongated. The deeply forked caudal fin contains six- 

 teen rays, with five or six short exterior rays on each side. 



The lateral line falls obliquely from its commencement above the 

 opercle to the middle of the length of the fish, and is then continued 

 with a gentler obliquity along the posterior part of the body to the 

 tail, where it has two-thirds of the height above it. 



The single specimen of this fish which has occurred was obtained 

 in the month of December, and it has been deposited in the British 

 Museum. The fish bears a close external resemblance to the 



