288 Transactions. — Zoology. 



were the longest, those in front and behind them gradually decreasing in 

 length. The rays of the crest are more closely set than those of the rest of 

 the dorsal fin, which stand about half an inch apart." 



Liitken,* describing a drawing of a specimen from the Faroe Islands, 

 obtained in 1852, and probably referable to the same species, states that 

 immediately in front of the true dorsal fin " there were two high and pointed 

 nuchal fins, the total number of rays in which cannot be stated exactly," 

 but is probably about 11. None of these rays exhibit terminal dilatations. 



Von Haast says of R. pacificus (pi. xxiv., fig. 1) "the first nine spines 

 form a crest. These spines enlarge at their termination to a lobe, as shown 

 by the two only perfect ones when the fish was obtained ; they cover a space 

 of 2-5 inches. The first of these spines is broken off at 3 inches from the 

 base ; it is- the stoutest of the whole series. No. 2 is considerably thinner, 

 and 7 inches long. It is one of the complete ones. The three next spines 

 (3, 4, and 5) were all broken off at 4 to 6 inches, and were nearly as thick 

 as the first. From here they get thinner, the thickness of the seventh 

 having only the thickness of the second. This spine, which is entire, is 

 7'75 inches long, and has, like the second, a lobe at its termination. The 

 eighth is still thinner, and broken off 1 inch from its base, and there is only 

 a fragment of the ninth, which is not thicker than one of the rays of the 

 dorsal fin proper. All of these spines, which have minute hooks directed 

 upwards on their anterior and posterior edges, are united with each other 

 by a small membrane about *45 inch high. They had, like the two ventral 

 rays, a red colour, very bright in their upper portion when the fish was first 

 obtained, which, however, gradually faded to a dull light pink." Nothing 

 is said as to the form of the lobes terminating the two perfect spines, but 

 the latter appear from the figure to have been merely bluntly clavate. It 

 is further stated that the proper dorsal fin begins half an inch behind the 

 last of these rays. This statement would seem to imply that the two dorsals 

 were separate in Haast's specimen. 



In the Nelson specimen the crest is thus described by Travers : — " from 

 the back of the head rose several rigid circular spines, about eighteen 

 inches long, three-quarters of an inch in diameter at the base, tapering to 

 a point, curving slightly backwards, hollow and bristling along their whole 

 surface with small spines directed upwards. These long spines appear to 

 have been very brittle, as they broke off short Avhen the fish struck the 

 rock. The person who saw the fish run ashore described these spines [sic] 

 as presenting the appearance of three small masts to a boat, through the whole 

 length of the fish, disposed in pairs asfolloics, — one pair just below the back and 



* Ann. and Mag. N.H., Ser. 5, vol. xi., p. 181. 



