FISHES. 213 



description. Though Cuvier knew the fish only from the drawing 

 and notes of the Forsters, and there are some important omissions 

 and ohscure passages in the latter, as published by Schneider, he 

 appears to have assigned a correct place to it in the system ; for it 

 seems to be most nearly allied to Callionymus, which is the genus 

 to which it was assigned by Forster. The New Zealand name of 

 this fish is written " Kogohooe" by G. Forster, and " Kohikoi " 

 by Dr. Dieffenbach. 



Form elongated, with the width at the gill -covers, where it is 

 greatest, exceeding the height ; from thence the head is depressed, 

 and slopes gradually to the snout, which shows a widely lanceolate 

 tip when seen from above, and a thin edge when viewed in profile. 

 The top of the head is flatly convex laterally, and the same de- 

 pressed-rounded form extends on the upper surface, from the occi- 

 put to the dorsal, but with an acute though not elevated mesial line. 

 At the beginning of the dorsal the height and thickness of the body 

 are nearly equal, and from thence it diminishes gradually in both 

 dimensions to the slender base of the caudal fin. The sides are 

 quite flat, and the back and belly are rounded, with a groove for 

 the reception of the dorsal and anal. The head forms somewhat 

 less than a fifth part of the total length, caudal included, and its 

 height at the eyes is about equal to one-third of its own length. 

 The large oval orbits, being placed very near to each other on the 

 lateral slope of the head, have a vertical and slightly outward aspect. 

 A thickening of the integument on the upper half of the eyeball 

 forms what Forster calls " a semilunar nictitating membrane." The 

 upper margins of the orbits are smooth and slightly raised, and 

 flank a narrow linear mesial depression. The preorbitar large and 

 triangular, with its apex, pointing forward, has a smooth even edge, 

 with some low smooth ridges radiating forward on its surface. An 

 exterior membrane, free beneath, stretches across the snout from one 

 preorbitar to the other, as in Callionymus, and is the part to which 

 Forster alludes when he says " labium superius duplex, apice 

 semilunato spinis duabus." The fore edge of the membrane is 

 slightly lunate, the tips of the crescent being formed by the acute 

 subulate points of the maxillaries, which are the spines of Forster. 

 The limb of the maxillary widens to its end, which is truncated, 

 and can be retracted entirely beneath the edge of the preorbitar 

 and of the scaly margin of the cheek at the angle of the mouth : 

 its end shows when the jaws are extended. The intermaxillaries 

 form the entire upper lip, and their limbs, covered by the ordinary 

 integument, play beneath the preorbitar membrane, and are pro- 



