SCORP^ENA. 265 



The specimen before us is not far from fifteen 

 inches long, thick through the head and shoul- 

 ders ; gills enormous, gape of the mouth wide, lips 

 tendon-like, fins broad and stiff, and the body of 

 a dirty yellowish complexion, having the appear- 

 ance of being partially coated with patches of 

 short moss. 



Shaw gives a vivid description of the scorpaena 

 horrida, a native of the Indian Seas, which is so 

 absolutely forbidding, as to realize to the eye all 

 that the most vivid imagination considers horrible. 

 At times we are inclined to believe the one be- 

 fore us a variety of that, species. The margin of 

 the lips are fringed with scolloped, membranous 

 ribbons, hanging down and floating like oak-leaves, 

 so that it would seem difficult to swallow, with- 

 out drawing them into- the mouth. We cannot 

 explain their use, yet it is certain they subserve 

 some important purpose: The head is large, cov- 

 ered with tubercles,, broad bumps and depress^ 

 ions. 



In the dorsal fin are twentynine rays ; the first 

 sixteen are stiff,, but the remainder are of the 

 character that would place the fish among the per- 

 seques. There are twenty rays in the caudal, fif* 

 teen in the anal, and three in the ventral fins ; the 

 gill membrane has seven rays. When the mouth is 

 open, and put upon the stretch, as noticeable when 



