494 Dr. Richardson's Contributions to 



the vertical axis of the body. The belly is rounded, and not serrated 

 like Chatoessus. The tinder jaw exceeds the snout in length, so that 

 the mouth opens obliquely upwards when the jaw is moderately de- 

 pressed. The maxillary bone is large and strong, and consists of 

 three pieces ; a long and slightly arched one, which carries the 

 teeth on its anterior edge, and receives the two shorter pieces into 

 its posterior arc, so that the form of the whole bone is a long oval, 

 whose tip reaches backwards beyond the middle of the eye. The 

 intermaxillaries, maxillaries, and lower jaw are armed on their thin 

 edges only with very narrow bands of minute teeth, which have more 

 resemblance to the asperities of a fine file than to the pile of shorn 

 velvet. The whole surface of the palate-bone is rough, and when 

 examined with a lens appears like shagreen, or as if densely pow- 

 dered with xery fine sand. 



The eye is large, and is situated the breadth of itself from the scales 

 on the nape, and half that distance from the end of the snout, and a 

 diameter and a half from the extreme edge of the gill-cover. It just 

 touches the profile of the forehead, but is nearly its own height above 

 the inferior outline of the head. The crest of the preoperculum is 

 defined in the dried specimen by an arc of irregular pits, from whence 

 fine furrows radiate over the broad and delicately thin limb of the 

 bone. Similar streaks are visible on the suborbitars, and are con- 

 nected with a chain of pores which surround the orbit. 



The scales are large, there being only forty in a longitudinal row, 

 exclusive of one or t^vo small ones on the base of the caudal, and 

 there are nine in a vertical row between the dorsal and ventrals. The 

 lateral line runs straight along the middle of the side, and each of its 

 scales, which are of the same size with the rest, is marked by six or 

 seven slightly undulating and mostly forked furrows, which radiate 

 from an irregular eminence at the back of the uncovered surface. 

 The area of the scales resembles frosted silver with a thin, narrow 

 margin imitating the polished metal, and yielding silvery, greenish 

 and purplish reflexions. The top of the head and summit of the back 

 retain a dark oUve tint, which gradually fades away above the lateral 

 line. The belly appears to have been white. The head is nacry with 

 metalhc lustre, and yields golden reflexions. The vertical fins are 

 dark gray, thickly powdered with minute dark dots, as was the case 

 with Forster's fish. The colours are described from the specimen 

 after being washed and while still wet. 



Rays:— 1st spec. B. 21; D.19; A. 25; V. 10 ; P. 15 ; C. 20|. 

 2nd do. 22; 18; 25; 10; 15; 20|. 



Forster's spec. 22; 17; 25; 10; 15; 204(Brous.) 

 The first specimen is the left side of a fish, and the second one the 

 right. A difference of one ray in the branchiostegous membrane of 

 the right and left sides of the same individual is common among the 

 Sahnonidcc, and it is very probable that Forster did not reckon the 

 two very short incumbent rays at the beginning of the dorsal which 

 I have included in my enumeration. 



The dorsal, standing directly over the ventrals, commences exactly 



