SOUTHERN TRACHICHTHYS. 



iris appears to have been of a silvery line, or as in 

 the generality of fishes. The mout h is <|< M it m 

 teeth, and the tongue, which is modrrat. 1\ 

 is adnate, or fixed to the lower jaw, to the < \t m,, 

 of which it almost reaches. The opercnla or ^ill- 

 covers are furnished on the upper part with ;i 

 strong, and rough spine, which is very thick at, 

 base : a smaller and shorter spine also occurs at 

 the lower part : the outline of each operciiluni 

 somewhat sinuated by two very short and subacute 

 processes towards the middle; and the remainder 

 is composed of five or six rough-edged lamellae 

 resembling the surface of the body. The membrana 

 branchiostega has about eight rays, of which the 

 four lowermost are rough-edged, and thicker th; 

 the rest. Perhaps no fish yet known, if we except 

 what are called mailed or cataphracted fish, is so 

 strongly coated as the present ; the scales forming 

 a kind of processes, which are so strongly and 

 closely inserted, that it is not possible by mean* of 

 a forceps to detach one from the rest, without brin 

 ing away with it a small portion of the corium or 

 general integument itself; the skin in this respect 

 resembling in some degree that of the genus 

 JBalistes* These scales or processes, as to their 

 general structure, are analogous to those of the 

 Choetodons; terminating outwardly in a fringe <>J 

 small, strong spines, besides several scattered on 

 on the surface. They differ somewhat in .shape on 

 different parts of the animal, and as they apj>iua< l 

 the abdomen become more dilated. The abdonu n 

 itself is carinated and cataphracted by a row 

 eight strong, rough incisures or scales, each of win 



