The Zoologist — December, 1874. 4257 



and covered with scales at the base, is under the base of the 

 pectorals; they are short and pointed, and contain one spinous 

 and five soft fin-rays, all bifid. The anal has one spinous ray 

 (a very small one, barely more than rudimentary) and seventeen 

 soft rays, commences close behind the vent, and ends quite clear 

 of the tail under the end of the dorsal. The caudal is indented, 

 but not deeply, and contains eighteen soft rays. The dorsal is 

 peculiar : first come six small spinous rays, of which the fourth, 

 M'hich is the longest, is a trifle under three-eighths of an inch long, 

 and to the top of each is attached a little fin, which ends at the 

 base of the ray behind it, like a leg-of-mutton sail: this fin is not 

 scale-rayed.* Each spine with its proper membrane falls back 

 into a dorsal groove, but the spines are not so far apart from each 

 other as they are long. After these spines comes one very short 

 stout spine embedded in the base of the soft dorsal, which consists 

 of twenty-two soft rays, all bifid. The lateral line follows the curve 

 of the back, passing high over the pectorals and being well defined. 

 The head is perfectly smooth and destitute of scales and covered 

 with muciferous pores, and it (the head) was, when I first handled 

 the fish, slimy to a degree. Tiie body is covered with scales, which 

 are ctenoid square, with the corners rounded, semitransparent with 

 concentric lines, but not showing actual pectination on the outer, 

 edges under a magnifying power of sixteen : they are of various 

 sizes, largest along the sides, especially the under side of the lateral 

 line, and have the exposed edges speckled with very minute black 

 spots : they lie very close to the body, so that the finger passes 

 easily over them from tail to head. 



1 was told that the fish when first taken was bright-coloured. 

 When I saw it, it was of a leaden blue, shot with purple over the 

 back, and silver-white on the belly. The head was mottled with 

 dark blue spots, disposed like the dark markings of a trout: a row 

 of these in semicircle ran round the upper and hinder part of the 

 orbits. The nose was gristle-white. From the vent there oozed 

 a dark mauve-coloured fluid, and, as I have said, in its stomach 

 were found remains of barnacles. The fish is under preservation 

 for our museum here. 



Seeing that the fish belongs to the family "Squammipennes," 

 T am restricted in my search for its genus and species. Not being 



* The next dozen words are taken from a descriiHion of tlie courpata (Tetra- 

 gonurus Cuvieri), because they precisely describe the fin of my fish. — T, C. 



