220 report— 1845. 



The belly is tile-red, while the fins have a colour approaching more to carmine, but the mem- 

 branes of the ventrals and anal are mostly orpiment-orange. A dull reddish-brown tinges 

 the front of the head., and a more lively carmine the lips and cornets of the mouth. Along 

 the middle of the olive-coloured preorbitar there is a dark streak, and another marks out its 

 lower edge. A peach-blossom red spot is placed on the top of the tail immediately behind the 

 second dorsal. 



Hab. Canton. • -iJLz^^r. 



Upeneus russelii, C. et V. iii. p. 465. Bahtee goolivinda, Russell, pi. 157. 



Mullus indicus, Shaw, Zool. iv. p. 614 ; Icon. Reeves, a. 36 ; Hardw. 



Acanth. 102. Chinese name, Tsing fei te (Birch); Ching fe te (Reeves). 



Bad. D. 9|-9; A. 1|7; C. 14f ; P. 16 ; V. l|5. (Brit. Mus. spec.) 



An injured specimen of this fish, procured at Canton by the Rev. George Vachell, exists in 

 the museum of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, and there are two from the same place 

 in the British Museum, presented by John Reeves, Esq., which differ from the drawing merely 

 in the black spot on the top of the tail being a little further back. The species belongs to 

 the same group with biaculeatus, which it resembles in figure, and the Chinese appellation is 

 the same with a distinctive epithet added. 



The first spine of the dorsal is very short and incumbent on the base of the second, while 

 the last spine is very small, recumbent and not easily detected, so that only seven may be 

 reckoned, unless on minute inspection. Joints exist at top of the first ray of the second 

 dorsal, and the point of the anal spine is flexible. The operculum has two small spinous points, 

 and its anterior border is striated. The scales are granular and reticulate on their outer 

 margin, minutely pitted on the disc, and furrowed and granulated towards the base. Each 

 scale of the lateral line is marked by a little torch, that is, a cluster of many simple or merely 

 forked short branchlets supported on a thickish tubular stem. 



The colours are pretty well described by Russell. In Mr. Reeves's figure a short blue line 

 runs from the orbit to the nostril, another borders the preorbitar beneath, and three descend 

 from the temples to the cheek and gill- cover. The large anterior lateral spot is of a bright 

 gamboge, and the posterior one is purplish-black. Five orange-coloured streaks cross the 

 anal obliquely. 



Hab. Indian and China seas. 



Upeneus bensasi, Temm. et Schl. F.J. p. 30. pi. 11. f. 2. " Japanese name, 

 Bensasi." 



Hab. Seas of Japan. 



Upeneus tragula, Richardson. Icon. Reeves, a. 21 ; Hardw. Acanth. 105. 



Chinese name, Yang tswan, "Ocean borer" (Birch); " Sea arrow" (Reeves); 

 Yeung tsiin, (Bridgem. Chrest. 229). Bad. D. 7. vel 8|-1|8 ; A. 1|6, &c. 



This species is allied to sub-vittatus, dubius and others of the same group which have 

 banded caudals. Mr. Reeves presented a Canton specimen to the British Museum, and I 

 have received two from Surgeon R. A. Bankier, R. N., procured at Hong Kong. The short 

 tubes on the scales of the lateral line are for the most part divided, and one of the branches is 

 generally notched at the end, while the other emits very short transverse branchlets, The 

 whole cluster on each scale looks to the naked eye to be merely a club-shaped tube. Narrow 

 bands of minute, slender but bluntish teeth^arm the jaws and edges of the palate-bones, and 

 there are still smaller ones on the chevron of the vomer. The barbels reach to the preoper- 

 culum. A more slender fish than vittatus and less so than tceniopterus. Blackish-green ; 

 upper half of the body traversed by a pale streak, commencing at the eye and coincident at 

 first with the lateral line, but running above it in its course through the tail. Round purplish 

 dots are distributed equally over the whole body, but are most conspicuous on the lower sil- 

 very parts. On the cheeks, the specks are dark umber, smaller and not round. The dorsals 

 are darkish, especially towards their tips, with obscure bars in the specimens, and on the second 

 the darker colour forms a large blotch. Six dark brown bars cross the caudal. The anal 

 and ventrals are roseate with round dots, which are deep reddish-brown on the ventrals. 



Hab. Canton. 



Upeneus dubius, Temm. et Schl. F. J. p. 30. pi. 11. f. 3. 



Hab. Seas of Japan. 



There remains two of Mr. Reeves's figures, which we are unable to place in their proper 

 groups from ignorance of their dentition. One of them, named Yang chuey, " Foreign mullet" 

 (Icon. Reeves, a. 44 ; Hardw. 103), has the external form of Up. bensasi, which enters the first 

 division of the genus, but it wants the bands and spots on the fins of that species. 



