>.\riiY PIKE. 397 



small ; a keel-like edge, commencing on each side in a line 

 with the lower edge of the gill-cover, passes the whole length 

 of the body ; the space between these lines not wider than 

 one quarter of an inch, except where they dilate a little to 

 include or pass outside of the ventral fins : the dorsal and 

 anal fins are placed far back, and commence on the same 

 plane ; the dorsal fin with five finlets behind it ; the anal 

 fin with seven finlets behind it : the tail deeply forked; the 

 two portions divided as far as the posterior edge of a scale- 

 like appendage, with which the fleshy portion terminates. 

 The numbers of the fin-rays are 



D. 9. V : P. 13 : V. 6 : A. 11. VII : C. 19. 



The cheeks and gill-covers are brilliant silvery white ; the 

 irides golden yellow, the pupil rather elongated vertically ; 

 the upper part of the head, and the back, throughout its 

 whole length, are of a fine dark blue, lighter on the sides 

 below, and tinged with green ; lower part of the sides and 

 the belly silvery white ; all the fins dusky brown. 



Mr. Couch is, as far as I am aware, the only naturalist 

 who has recorded a notice of a fish belonging to the genus 

 Hemiramphus of Cuvier on the British coast ; but the par- 

 ticular species it is not easy now to determine. The head 

 of a fish of that genus is made the subject of the following 

 vignette to show its peculiarity, and invite the future in- 

 vestigations of those admirers of the marine productions of 

 nature who reside on the coast. 



