54 ON BALISTES VETULA. 



specimens. They include the following : a narrow ring 

 around the snout ; a streak behind this, from its upper 

 portion, along each side of the face, toward the ventral 

 spine, stopping at the level of the lower edge of the pec- 

 toral ; another stripe parallel with the last passing from the 

 base of the pectoral over the forehead ; a narrow streak 

 from the lower edge of the eyeball across the forehead, 

 and faint indications of one or more of the radiating or- 

 bital bands above this ; a band along the bases of the fin 

 rays of each of the fins ; a wide band around the caudal 

 pedicel, between which band and that at the bases of the 

 caudal ra} r s there is a single very narrow streak ; and near 

 each margin of each of the fins, but separated from it by 

 a narrow edging of brown, there is a narrow band of the 

 blue, that on the concave portion of the caudal fin being 

 widest. Compared with Bloch's figure (of a smaller speci- 

 men) it lacks the narrow streaks on the central portions of 

 the fins, has but two bands around the caudal pedicel, in- 

 stead of four or more, and the lower band of the face does 

 not extend back to unite with that touching the base of the 

 pectoral, the latter band being continued farther down and 

 also extended up behind the shoulder. Only two of the 

 lines radiating from the eye are to be seen. The faint 

 oblique lines seen on the back of the figure are entirely 

 obsolete. The mentioned figure gives a very misleading 

 idea of the teeth and of the ventral fins. There are in the 

 specimen but eight somewhat compressed or incisor-like 

 teeth obliquely extended forward in each jaw ; the ante- 

 rior pair are more pointed, and the others are notched so 

 as to appear rather indistinctly bicuspid. The ventrals are 

 peculiar; in that they appear as a single fin. On dissect- 

 ing them out it is found that they really are separate fins 

 which from opposite sides of the body are brought down 

 and applied to each other on the median ventral line, so 



