I89I.] MR. R. TRIMEN ON LOPHOTES CEPEDIANUS. 483 



band of villiform teeth ; a similar angular band on the vomer ; no 

 palatine teeth. 



The dorsal fin commences on the foremost and highest part of the 

 nape, and is composed of two portions which are connected at the 

 base by a very low membrane. Both portions are very high. Of the 

 spines the third and fourth are the longest, not quite one third of tlie 

 total length without caudal ; the longest rays are somewhat shorter. 

 Anal fin about as deep as the soft dorsal. Caudal fin as long as the 

 longest dorsal spine. Pectoral fin very large and broad, the seven 

 lower rays being particularly stout and simple. 



The body is covered with very small and indistinctly ctenoid scales ; 

 head and fins entirely naked. Nearly every part of the fish is 

 covered with long fleshy tentacles, simple or fringed at the end ; they 

 are most numerous on the spinous dorsal and on the pectoral fins, 

 but very few in number on the soft vertical fins. The largest are 

 on the jaws, on the top of the orbital edge, along the prseopercular 

 margin, and along the lateral line. The eye itself is surrounded by a 

 ring of small tentacles. 



Ground-colour brownish, marbled with irregular round, greyish, 

 brown-edged spots ; a pure white round spot on the cheek, on the 

 base of the pectoral fin, on the back of the peduncle of the tail, and 

 on the end of the lateral line. A pair of oval black ocelli between 

 the sixth, seventh, and eighth dorsal rays. 



The total length of this fish is seven and a third inches. 



5, On the Occurrence of a rare Fish {Lophotes cepedianus) 

 at the Cape of Good Hope. By R. Trimen, F.Z.S. 



[Eeceived Jwly 21, 1891.] 



Specimens of Lophotes appear to be still of such rare occurrence 

 that it may be of interest to record the capture of an example of 

 L. cepedianus in False Bay on the 6th June, 1891. 



This example was found on the sea-shore at a spot named Blue 

 Dunes, about 5 miles east of Muizenberg, by some men in the 

 employ of Mr. J. Hirscb, who has presented the fish to the South- 

 African Museum. Mr. Hirsch was informed that it was alive when 

 discovered ; and its fresh condition when I received it at 1 o'clock 

 (several hours after it was taken) lent much probability to this 

 statement. The only injuries the specimen had sustained were the 

 loss of the greater part of the caudal fin, and the fracture of some of 

 the rays of the dorsal fin, including the long and strong first ray, but 

 in the last-named the part snapped off (about two thirds of the total 

 length) had been saved by the donor. 



The specimen agrees very well with the figures given in Cuvier and 

 Valenciennes' s 'Hist. Nat. des Poissons ' (pi. 301), and in the Atlas 

 of the great illustrated edition of the ' Regne Animal' (Poissons, 

 pi. 70), with the exception that there are no traces of the numerous 

 rounded paler spots. This may perhaps be indicative of the 



