64 



1 T i -RA L IIISTOR Y. 



MIOAD-XOSEI) nr-FISJI. 



the minute eggs in the sac. The vertebral column consists of eighteen abdominal vertebrae and 

 fifteen caudal vertebrae. The vertebrae gradually decrease in length backward, so that the shortness 

 of the tail is due to the diminished length of the bones. The pelvis consists of two pairs of cartila- 

 ginous plates. There is a dermal skeleton on this fish, formed of star-shaped ossifications, each having 

 three or four radiating branches, by which they are joined to the adjacent bones. Soletwstoma 

 cyanopterum, which ranges from Zanzibar to China, varies in colour, being sometimes brown, with 

 minute spots of black and white,, and sometimes pink, with small brown spots. The other species are 

 from Amboyna. 



