224 FAUNA OF NEW ZEALAND. 



spicuously smooth on the inferior side, which is destitute of the 

 downiness exhibited by many of the soles. The lateral line is 

 quite straight, and runs to the extreme end of the caudal. The 

 scales are deeply imbedded in the skin of the body, adhere 

 strongly, and are smooth to the touch, whether the finger be drawn 

 backwards or forwards ; their form varies with their position, 

 being oval, obliquely rounded, or partially truncated ; all have a 

 narrow rhomboidal tip covered with a thick spotted epidermis. 

 Under a microscope of high power many clear lines or furrows 

 can be seen radiating from behind the rhomboidal tip to the pos- 

 terior edge of the scale, separated by fine ridges, which appear 

 transversely jointed or corrugated, and as if composed of minute 

 oblong crowded or tiled plates. A few of the same kind of 

 plates can be perceived irregularly scattered on the tip of the 

 scale when deprived of its epidermis. Neither teeth nor crena- 

 tures can be detected on the edge of the scale. Scaly fillets exist 

 between the caudal rays. The other fins are scaleless. 



The branchiostegous membrane is supported by seven rays on 

 each side, the lower ray being very small and turned from the 

 others towards the mesial line. The pectorals are rounded, and 

 contain eleven rays. The under fin is rather smaller than the upper 

 one, but has as many rays. The dorsal commences a little before 

 the nostrils, and almost at the end of the snout ; but the jaws project 

 beyond it. Its rays, sixty in number, gradually increase in height 

 towards the middle of the fin, and decrease again towards its end, 

 the last rays being very short. The three first rays have free, taper- 

 ing, thread-like tips, with the membrane between them deeply 

 notched. The anal is shaped like the dorsal, except that the tips 

 of its first rays do not project so far beyond the membrane. It 

 contains forty-five rays. The ventral is situated in the same 

 plane with the anal, and their membranes are continuous, the 

 position of the anus alone showing where the one terminates and 

 the other begins. If the fin be regarded as two ventrals com- 

 bined, there are but three rays in each, and the three first resemble 

 the corresponding dorsal rays, and have deeply-notched mem- 

 branes. The pelvis forms a projecting horn, three-quarters of an 

 inch long, separated from the os hyoides by a notch. 



DIMENSIONS. 



In. Lin. 



Length from end of snout to extremity of caudal fin 10 8J 



Do. do. to beginning of ditto . 8 9 



