82 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 



radiating plates on the anterior surface. The scales cover the opercular bones, and the lower 

 jaw, where they are small, long, narrow and elliptical, and are also on the bases of the fins. 

 Lateral line concurrent with the dorsal outline. Head large ; its outline sloping in a regular 

 but slight curve to the snout, and, measured to the point of the opercle, is one-third of the 

 total length. Eyes large, near the facial outline, and 1 -0 in diameter. Nostrils double, con- 

 tiguous, subequal ; the anterior with a valvular membrane on its posterior margin. Pre- 

 opercle denticulated minutely on the upper part of the ascending branch, more strongly 

 towards the angle, which is rounded, and, with the lower margin, smooth. Opercle terminat- 

 ing in a flat membranous point : on its surface, • 5 in advance of its tip, is a flat lancet-shaped 

 spine ; beneath this, and slightly in advance, is a second spine of the same size and shape ; 

 and near the upper angle of the branchial aperture is a third, more obscure, and rounded. 

 Mouth large, protractile, extending back beneath the orbits. Lips fleshy. Teeth small, 

 acute, conic, recurved, distributed in two bands in the jaws, with an intervening free space 

 in the centre ; the teeth in the posterior series are larger as they approach the centre of the 

 jaw ; the exterior series is composed of longer, very acute, more robust, and distant teeth- 

 Vomer, palatines, pharyngeals, and branchial arcs covered with acute bristly teeth. 



The dorsal fin commences eight inches from the end of the snout, or above the point of the 

 opercle, and contains eleven robust spinous rays received into a furrow, and sixteen flexible 

 rays : the first spinous ray short, less than half the length of the second ; the third longest ; 

 the tenth shorter than the eleventh. The soft portion of the dorsal rounded, equalling in 

 height the longest spinous rays ; it terminates beyond the end of the anal. Pectorals placed low 

 down, roimded, with one simple and fifteen branched rays, with a scaly fold on the superior 

 part of its base behind. Ventrals placed slightly behind the base of the pectorals, pointed, 

 triangular, with one robust spine and five branched rays ; the posterior ray attached to the 

 abdomen by a membrane. Vent about an inch in front of the anal fin, which has two spines 

 and ten soft rays : the first short, robust, acute ; the third simple, scarcely spinous, and 

 enveloped in membrane ; the remainder branched. This fin commences under the second 

 ray of the soft portion of the dorsal, and is high and rounded, equalling in height the longest 

 spinous rays of the dorsal. Caudal broad, crescent-shaped, and composed of sixteen rays. 



Color. Brownish olive, with a reddish tinge. Jaws, chin, branchial membrane, abdomen, 

 pectoral and ventral fins, and base of the anal fin, of a beautiful salmon-red, more or less 

 brilliant. Interior of the mouth of a bright blood-red. Dorsal, anal and caudal fins brownish- 

 black, with a bluish submargin bordered with black more or less deep : this black color is 

 more intense on the- caudal fin. Pupils black ; irides yellow. This is the general distribu- 

 tion of the colors in the particular individual described above ; but in thirty or forty others 

 which I have examined, the general color is brownish, shghtly tinged with red, the abdomen 

 exhibiting most of the latter color. 



Length, 24-0. Greatest depth, 7*0. 



Fins, D. 11.16; P. 16; V. 1.5; A. 2.10; C. 16. 



